1.

• • Finding and Hiring the Right

• Open Source support

• Wednesday April 9th, 2009

• Glenn McKnight

• Global Catalysts Consulting Service

2. Agenda

Objective

Overview of existing IT consultancy market

IT Support Issues

Best Practices

Recommendations

3.

• AlbertEinstein said

• Imagination is more important than knowledge

4. Objective of Seminar

• The objective of the seminar is stimulate you in the selection process for finding and eventually hiring the right Open Source Company or consultant

5. Who do you call?

When you need technical supportwho do you call?

What is your performance criteria?

6. IT Industry Overview 7. IT Overview

Economic impact of the IT sector

Employment

Company profiles

Growth

Trends

8. IT and Canadian Economy

Unemployment rate for IT workers is 1.6% compared with 6.1% national average

In 2005 contribution of $52 billion to the Canadian GDP

9. IT Overview

IT Growth

• Industry Canada reported 600,000 Jobs in ICT

• 32,000 companies

• • 76% service

• • 12% wholesale

• • 7.6% manufacturing

10. IT Company Overview

80% of companies employ 1-9 employees

14.8% of companies employ 10 to 50 employees

2.7% of companies employ 50 to 100 employees

2.5% employ 100 or more people,

120 companies employ over 500 people

16% to 20% of ICT workers are self employed

11. IT Market

Net growth of some 58,000 jobs over the next 3-5 years.

Shortage of 100,000 skilled workers is expected by 2009; 1 million by 2016

2004 through the year 2014, Labor foresees computer support specialist and systems administrator jobs growing 18 percent to 26 percent:"Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2007-10 Edition").

12. Linux and Open Source

Linux market growth by 27% to a market of $11.8 Billion

Mobile market saw growth by 31%, 60% of phone built on Linux

Government adoption of Linux

15% of business considering Linux Desktop, Vista problems

Microsoft and Novell cooperation deal

Dell, IBM, Novell etchave a Linux strategy

13. Canadian Open Source Companies

? number of Open Source specialist companies

? number of consultants specializing in Open Source solutions

Last Canadian study in 2003was done by E-cology

• http. www.e-ecology.ca/canfloss/report

• 17 Canadian companies active in FOSS

14. IT Support Issues 15. #1Dubious Technical Help 16. CBCMarketplace: The Sting

Modified a computer to simulate a common hardware failure

10 technicians from various companies were given a technical problem

What do you think happened?

• http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2007/10/03/geeks/

17. CBC Story

http://consumerist.com/consumer/videos/sting-op-of-10-different-computer-repair-companies-finds-70-dont-know-what-theyre-doing-306877.php

18. Observations

IT professionals are unregulated

Lack of industry flat rate charts

Accessing personal information

Lack of consumer/company awareness

• Backing up of software or any personal files,

• Erasing ofany private information, such as financial records, from the hard drive.

19. Results of the CBC Story

Three out of 10 solved the problem

70% missed the problem

Wide range of pricing for parts, labour etc

Invasion of privacy information

Snooping for information

Search and downloading of selective files

20. # 2 No FOSS ITAssociations 21. Canadian Associations

ITAChttp://www.itac.ca/

Information and Communication Tech Sector Council

• http://www.ictc-ctic.ca/en/

Lack of Canadian FOSS business association

How many people know about CLUE ?

• Canadian Association for Open Source http://www.linux.ca

22. Open Source Consultant Directory

In the UKthe trade organization Open Source Consortium has a membership base of companies focused on Free and Open Source services

Listing of members, collaborative effort for joint proposals

http://www.opensourceconsortium.org

23. Australia Open Source Market

Open Source Industry Australia and Linux Australia

Estimated to have 1500 companies generating $500 Million in revenue

http://census .waughpartners.com.au/

24. # 3Too many small companies 25.

Problem :Lone Wolfs

• One of the drawbacks of consultancies is that there are typically a lot of solo practitioners that can't do the bigger projects.

Solution: Co-optCompetion

• Open Source Consortium in the UK pool smaller consultants under a project management offering

26. How to Locate Open Source Professionals

No separate Open Source trade association

No collaborative similar to the UK, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere

27. Now you found Open Source companies What next? 28. Survival Guide:Request

Demonstrated relevant experience

History of projects on budget and on schedule

Testimonials

Fee structure

Human capacity

29. Qualifying Questions

Qualify exactly what kind of technology company you are dealing with

Verify that their customer base is similar to your type of business

Is the company bonded, insured, trained staff, qualified,

Ask for references

Check BBB complaints

30. Final Thought

Subscribe to the Open Source Business Review,

Showcasing Ontario FOSS companies

http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr

Request

• Podcast Interviews of FOSS business contact Jason or Glenn

31. Contact Information

Glenn McKnight

Email[email_address]

Phone 905-434-6655 or 416-907-0783

BLOGhttp://www.globalcatalysts.com

http://ecrimemonitor.wordpress.com

Skypegmcknight

FacebookGlenn McKnight

Twittergmcknight