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PA e-Comm News August 30

ADVERTISERS OF THE WEEK

Why do firehouses have circular stairways? (Answer later)

Almost daily we hear layoff announcements and many involve high-tech workers, especially those associated with electronics manufacturers and telecom. And while some analysts have said there are always jobs for highly skilled people, many high-tech workers would vehemently disagree. But it is true that opportunities still exist in some industries, and certain skills remain in high demand. Jobs can be had in traditional industries that have begun relying more heavily on technology to run operations, including healthcare, retail, automotive and financial services. These are industries where there are very rapid product life cycles. But even old-school firms like oil companies have technical needs. Remember though that many high-tech workers will have to acquire additional skills. CIOs are moving from the all-tech staff to a group that includes business analysts and project managers. So, high-tech workers may want to take a few business and management courses to supplement their technological skills. Some analysts are preaching that a B.S. in Computer Science in some cases may not be as important as industry certifications, particularly in J2EE, XML, SOAP and Web services platforms like BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere. Analysts still expect that the growing dependence on technology by non-tech companies will continue to offer new opportunities for those bent on a high-tech career.

The latest New York Times Job Market survey reports that students graduating with technical degrees are typically offered the highest starting salaries compared to their peers holding other degrees. The Beta Research Corp., on behalf of NYTJM, interviewed more than 450 hiring managers and job seekers in the New York metropolitan region and found that students holding both undergraduate and graduate technical degrees are offered the highest starting salaries, $38,000-$52,000 and $55,000-$78,000, respectively. Although graduates holding technical degrees command the highest starting salaries, hiring managers in the New York metropolitan region said they also are likely to recruit undergraduate students with degrees in business, liberal arts, technical disciplines, and communications. Among graduate students, hiring managers said they are likely to recruit those with M.B.A. degrees and M.A./M.S. degrees. But simply having a specific degree does not guarantee a job, according to the hiring managers polled. There are certain key attributes that job seekers need to possess: demonstrating strong ethics, ability to multi-task, ability to work well in teams, being a strategic thinker and willingness to do `grunt' work. When recruiting graduate students, hiring managers look for functional work experience or specific industry work experience. According to the study, students should take advantage of on-campus courses, activities or programs such as internships, leadership roles in extracurricular activities, work/study and research in fields of interest. 
During interviews, hiring managers look for a positive attitude, a professional appearance, eye contact, effective communication skills and displaying confidence in one’s abilities. Nearly 25% of job seekers surveyed think that hiring managers will be most likely to hire someone with a technical degree, which is a second choice behind business.

PeopleSoft recently debuted its Guardian suite of software that will allow government agencies to monitor the hiring, movement and training of their emergency workers and will also let users manage emergency command centers by monitoring alerts and tracking resources. New Justice Department regulations require colleges to collect certain information on foreign students and report it to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, starting in January. PeopleSoft said its new products would accomplish this task. They, along with many other companies, have targeted Federal spending on homeland security because the government is planning to spend $38 billion on homeland security in 2003. PeopleSoft also introduced two products to address the growing interest in corporate responsibility -- a portal that businesses can use to show specific financial information and performance indicators to customers and software that combines multiple financial reporting systems onto a single system.

To stay afloat, many companies have begun asking users to pay small fees for services that were once gratis and analysts predict this will be the wave of the future. Free services, like Worldspy.com and Juno’s e-mail, used to be plentiful on the Internet and users could obtain content from many sites. But hard times call for tough measures and companies that depended on free-service or free-content models have had to adapt their approach. Giga Information Group reported although no company can be called a true success at collecting Internet fees, some firms have paved the way, like AOL, but this model still needs to mature so that the cost of acquiring and maintaining a customer is more in line with what that customer is willing to pay. The trick to preventing consumer gripes is to enhance service offerings when adding fees. Two examples are MSN's extra storage capabilities -- which require users to pay more for additional storage space -- and eBay's price structure, which lets customers choose which services they want to use. 

ANSWER: This is left from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

E-COMMERCE RELATED EVENTS AND INFORMATION

The following are links to upcoming seminars and other events that our readers might have an interest in and/or other information related to e-commerce. 

Members of PA e-Commerce Association and our readership list are invited to attend the "The Age of Mobility - PA Opportunities from Emerging Wireless Technologies" in Harrisburg on September 26th, 2002. Visit http://www.witedu.com/ for more details. If you register for the event prior to September 13th, you will receive a $25.00 discount. 
To recognize the PA e-Commerce Association, an additional event registration discount of $50.00 is being made available. Use this special six-digit code on your registration form to get the benefit: #669966. We look forward to seeing you at the Whitaker Center on September 26.

The Mid-Atlantic - Russia Business Council and the U.S. Department of State announce a series of seminars on "Russian Science & Technology Opportunities for U.S. Businesses." The ninth seminar of this series will be organized in association with the World Trade Center Harrisburg, the Dauphin County Department of Community & Economic Development, Pennsylvania e-Commerce Association, Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania, Harrisburg Regional Chamber, Harrisburg U.S. Export Assistance Center, Pennsylvania Manufacturer's Association and the Team Pennsylvania Foundation, in partnership with the BISNIS U.S. Department of Commerce, and sponsored by the U.S. Industry Coalition, UPS and Ernst and Young LLP. The Seminar will take place from 8:30 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

For more information please contact Val Kogan, Mid-Atlantic – Russia Business Council at phone: (215) 708-2628, email: prbc@att.net, visit the MARBC website at: http://fita.org/prbc 

For registration please contact Mary Jo Shaub, PA e-Commerce Association at phone: (800) 497-0809, email: info@paecomm.org

PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The following is a listing of recently published technology procurement opportunities with various governmental entities. We hope our readers take the opportunity to investigate these postings and increase their business:

GSA
Federal Technology Service (FTS)
Office of Information Security (TI)
D -- PIMS Operations & Maintenance Technical Support Services, PfP
Information Management Systems Support, Technical Support Services
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/GSA/FTS/TI/Reference-Number-GS00T02SJD0055/listing.html

DOC
Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)
Office of Procurement
70 -- RTM Web Interface
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DOC/PTO/OPDC20220/Reference-Number-194P0250456/listing.html

DOC
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Acquisition and Logistics Division
R -- Technical Services
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/Reference-Number-NA1341-02-W-1314/listing.html

DOC
Office of the Secretary
Commerce Acquisition Solutions, Commerce Information Technology
Solutions
D -- Request for Information (RFI) on Commercial Law Development Program(CLDP) Database Development
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DOC/OS/OAM/AAAA00002G00072/listing.html

DISA
Acquisition Directorate
DITCO-Scott
D--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, INCLUDING COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DISA/D4AD/DITCO/VARIOUS-26-Aug-2002/listing.html

USN
Office of Naval Research
Naval Research Laboratory
A -- Electronic Support Measures (ESM) Technology Development Support
Link to Amendment 0001 01
http://www.eps.gov/spg/USN/ONR/N00173/N00173-02-R-DL03/listing.html

State
Office of Logistics Management
Acquisition Management
D -- Information Technology Support Services
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/State/A-LM-AQM/A-LM-AQM/Reference-Number-
SLMAQM-97-C-0008/listing.html

Source: www.eps.gov. For direct assistance, contact your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center at www.PaPTACs.com

NEWS & NOTES is a service of the PA e-Commerce Association. Please forward this e-mail to anyone else who might be interested in the content or in learning more about the Association. Remember to visit our website @ www.paecomm.org. or give us a call at 800-497-0809.

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