CompTIA Blog

From 2006-2010, one billion units of Internet-enabled devices were sold across Europe.  Ninety percent of those units were mobile devices.  Is your enterprise ready to embrace mobility?During a session at our EMEA Member Conference, panelists discussed the growing role of mobility and mobile devices in today’s enterprises.  Neal Louw, CTO of Dimension Data Europe, a $5 billion systems integrator, urged the audience to think of mobile enterprise not as evolution but revolution. It's a game change ...

Professor James Messer delivered a fantastic session at our EMEA Member Conference on the use of social media in the current training market.   Professor Messer has been creating free online training support videos for CompTIA certifications for several years and built his brand through the use of social media.Professor Messer offered insight on what has worked for him and how best to utilize social media for maximum impact within the technology training industry.  One of the many key tips that ...

Todd Lammle hosted an insightful and interesting session at our EMEA Member conference entitled “Relevant Certification Training for This Decade: How to Train Our Students for The Future—Now!”  Lammle sees issues with the way our current learning methods engage our learners; in an era of instant information and fast moving technology, it’s becoming harder and harder to get a student to sit down and actually read a book.  In fact, Lammle himself has reached a point in his life that even he can’t ...

At this year’s CompTIA EMEA Members Conference, Steve Head delivered an energetic, fun-packed and inspiring closing keynote that finished with a standing ovation.Through a series of comical stories and exercises, Head helped his audience understand that we are drawn to finding faults rather than focusing on what is right and working.  We need to be conscious of this and instead of ‘sweating the small stuff’ we need to focus on the good stuff!In a world where we are all looking to deliver more wi ...

Earlier this week a very significant development took place that went fairly unnoticed.  Congressman Greg Walden, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, unveiled legislation with the purpose of improving process and transparency at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).This move was significant because the FCC is an independent agency that has been at odds over what has turned into a partisan issue: net neutrality.  The FCC has been criticized for issuing last ...

Takeaway of the week is that more signs are pointing to IT jobs on the horizon. You just have to know where to look. Are you interested in healthcare IT? Have you considered spanning the globe right from your computer as an online-only contractor? If you’re already in an IT job, are you content? Other people say you are.   The Online-Only Worker Bee Technological advances connect the global workforce like never before. One of the growing dynamics of this new reality is the growth of t ...

On this Veterans’ Day, we pause to remember the sacrifices and courage exhibited by the men and women who defended our country and continue to protect our freedom. The call to duty requires not only bravery, but commitment and moral obligation to their fellow soldiers and sailors. With that in mind, business ethics seemed more than appropriate for today’s topic—especially with this week’s headlines.Few things are as electrifying to the media and populace as charges of inappropriate conduct in th ...

CompTIA consistently has called for repeal of the 3% federal tax withholding on government contracts.  Finally, the Senate has acted, passing H.R. 674 by a vote of 95-0.  This follows overwhelming passage by the House on October 27.  However, the bill must now return to the House for a vote, as an amendment (which passed by a 94-1 vote) was added to the original House version that would: Provide tax credits for veterans hiring; Require a Treasury study of tax delinquency among federal contractor ...

At EMEA this week in London, Sue Cawdron and Nick Hnatiuk of Pearson Work Based Learning discussed the merits of modern day apprenticeship programs and the opportunities for the future of learning in the education and commercial sectors.  They debated the practicalities of apprenticeship programs, how they are currently being used and potential benefits to be gained, in what was an insightful session.Supporting various organizations, Pearson has a philosophy of being flexible in its work with em ...

Some of the largest MFP vendors gathered together at an EMEA session entitled “Channeling Talent into the Document Imaging Industry through Apprenticeships” to tackle common issues facing their industry such as a lack of standards and skills amongst young people entering the market and available learning and accreditation paths.Clive Allen from Sharp Electronics pontificated on the reasons that young individuals don’t want to step in to the document and imaging industry and how apprenticeships a ...

Takeaway of the week is that more signs are pointing to IT jobs on the horizon. You just have to know where to look. Are you interested in healthcare IT? Have you considered spanning the globe right from your computer as an online-only contractor? If you’re already in an IT job, are you content? Other people say you are. The Online-Only Worker Bee Technological advances connect the global workforce like never before. One of the growing dynamics of this new reality is the growth of the o ...

For many in the IT channel, managed services ushered in the Holy Grail of recurring revenue. The model also helped fulfill growing demand from cash-strapped customers to shift cap-ex IT spending to a more predictable operational expense. CompTIA’s recent study, Trends in Managed Services, finds managed services growth among both end-users (adopting) and channel companies (selling) is expected to continue apace in the next two years. Additionally, planned investments in these services by both con ...

I attended an interactive breakout session called Successful Business Growth Strategies for Easy and Effective Implementation at the CompTIA EMEA Conference this week, led by Susanne Dansey of Purple Cow Ideas Management, which included nine bars of chocolate and a room of business owners that was standing room only.The company name stems from Seth Godin’s book about being “Remarkable” and always standing out in what you do, and Dansey certainly delivered a message in that vein. She opened by as ...

In prior blogs, we’ve discussed our concerns about the Main Street Fairness Act and the Marketplace Freedom Act and how any increased compliance burdens may be imposed on many small businesses.We understand the concerns of many states that they are losing tax revenues due to the failure of purchasers to voluntarily file and pay use taxes on out-of-state purchases.  But the problem is not that businesses need to be “cracked-down” on because of some failing; the cause of the problem is that the st ...

As the economy dived, small businesses found capital to be hard (if not impossible) to secure.  Consequently, many small businesses are still working their way out of tough economic times, and most have had difficulty growing and adding employees.  While there is no single answer to this urgent problem, there are a number of small steps that Congress can take that will allow small businesses to raise capital more easily.  Clearly, our national economic recovery will not be achieved until small b ...