Sourcing For Innovation

Data design is the backbone of decision-making, strategy and innovation. However, harnessing the power of data isn't easy. It requires deliberate planning, strategic thinking and the right technology. Do it right and it will save you time, money and lead to better business outcomes. Do it wrong and it can create security risks, increase costs and lead to misguided decision-making. Chris Sorel, director of technology services at Catalyte, explains how to design for data the right way.

Many organizations look to leverage the cloud to move their business forward. But the promise of the technology (lower costs, more flexibility, greater scalability) can often be at odds with reality (spiraling costs, vampire applications, vendor confusion). Without careful consideration, cloud costs can quickly spiral out of control. Controlling cloud costs starts by focusing on three critical areas: cloud vendor costs, cloud migration costs and cloud optimization/maintenance costs. This podcast dives into those three areas, uncovering hidden costs traps and providing recommendation on how to control cloud costs while maximizing your technology budgets.

Senior software engineers, architects and team leads might be skeptical about working with apprentice software developers. They might think the apprentices will slow them down or result in more overhead to manage. Jason Foster, principal architect at Catalyte, explains why the opposite is true. Working with apprentice developers makes work faster, easier and reduces total costs. He explains why apprentices don't need hand holding, how they come vetted for quality and how they make life easier for seniors and management.

Employers need talent that can immediately contribute value and be productive the moment they start. Anything less means employers are losing time and money getting new hires up to speed. We talked with Dan Reuther, director of learning and development at Catalyte, about how our apprenticeships discover, develop and deploy day-one-ready talent that can hit the ground running, and how this process creates a "win-win-win" for everyone involved.

While the transition to skills-based hiring not an easy by any means, there are a few practical, concrete steps any organization can implement to align its skills-based hiring rhetoric and practices. We spoke with Catalyte CEO Matt Derella about how employers can make this transition. He highlights three practical area, the right incentives, technology and partners, that can help align skills-based hiring practices and rhetoric, and set your organization up for a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage.

Catalyte apprentices bring a flexible, agile mindset to every client engagement. Couple that with our rigorous, customizable technical development and clients quickly trust the work that apprentices deliver. We caught up with three of these public sector apprentices who are building an essential health care platform for a public sector client. The work they’ve done to date has had an incredible impact on their local community, driving improved outcomes and accessibility. We discussed their first year on the project, what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown during that time.

January is National Mentoring Month. We talked with three mentors at Catalyte, all at different points in their careers, about what mentoring means to them. Find out what traits/characteristics make for the best mentors (and mentees), why you're never too old to be a mentee, the importance of vulnerability and empathy in mentoring and how coaching and mentoring are similar, but different.

“Enterprises may be systems, but they are not machines. The most important element in any enterprise is the human element: the people contributing to it.” This perspective comes from Curt Schwab, Catalyte's President of On Demand, in his upcoming book "The Responsive Enterprise: Transform your organization to thrive on change". In this podcast, Curt lays out why talent is the key to creating a responsive enterprise, the three systemic elements that make up a responsive enterprise and what is the ultimate business value of becoming a responsive enterprise.

The past few years have changed the ways many organizations source and hire talent. These changes have stemmed from both pragmatic (the Great Resignation) and altruistic (realization that resume-based hiring is fundamentally biased) reasons. It’s fantastic that companies are starting to invest in alternative pathways to hiring. However, what’s happening so far is not enough to make the difference we need, either in companies’ bottom lines or in our society. Companies should view apprentices not as part of their “nontraditional” or emerging hiring strategies, but as core to their talent strategies. Doing so will unleash a plethora of benefits for businesses and our communities.

The idea of coaching in apprenticeships is so fundamental that it almost becomes invisible. But without it, apprentices don't get the structure and support they need to contribute now and advance in their careers. When done right, it helps deliver better talent to employers faster, without any additional effort on their end. Apprentice Program Manager Christine Fox discusses the importance of coaching in apprenticeships, how employers benefit from it without even knowing and why her coaching style in 95% Phil Jackson and 5% Bobby Knight.

Most companies run an internship program. So why not an apprenticeship? Catalyte CEO Matt Derella discusses why apprenticeships can go beyond an internship, helping employers find higher-quality talent faster and cheaper.

Employers face the increasing challenge of finding, hiring and retaining top technology talent. Most still use "traditional" sourcing methods that rely on resumes or existing skills. This limits the quantity and quality of candidates needed to advance business outcomes. This episode explores new and innovative approaches to sourcing technology talent. Listen to Catalyte CEO Jacob Hsu discuss how employers can benefit from sourcing models that focus on a person's aptitude and attitude. Learn how to create more productive, diverse, affordable and longer-lasting workforces with nontraditional talent.

A Navy veteran with an established technology career, Karl was not a typical candidate for Catalyte's software developer training and apprenticeship program. However, with his specialized area of expertise no longer in demand, Karl spent nearly a decade looking for a way back into the industry. A Craigslist ad promising "software developer training – no experience necessary" proved to be that way back in. Listen to Karl describe his journey, how Catalyte has its thumb on the pulse of diversity and inclusion and how he advocates for other non-traditional developers in this Sourcing for Innovation podcast episode:

Jamar Johnson was a mixed martial arts instructor when we discovered Catalyte in the mid-2000's. A successful graduate of our software developer training program, Jamar has continued to succeed in the technology industry. He is currently the director of quality and release management, HR technology and information strategy at Comcast. He also chairs Comcast's Black Employee Network. In this candid conversation, Jamar shares his developer journey from a non-traditional background to leading teams at one of America's largest companies. He recounts how Catalyte helped him launch that journey. He also dives into how the tech industry as a whole can do a better job using technology to create a diverse talent pool and build more equitable companies. Hint: everyone speaks "green."

Managing a remote workforce has its challenges and rewards. If you've been thrust into a remote working situation as a result of COVID-19, or are looking for ways to maintain company cohesion, Tom Iler, CPO of Catalyte and leader of Surge, a Catalyte company, has advice on how to maintain a unified company culture across a remote workforce. For more information on how to establish, grow or maintain a remote workforce, please visit https://www.surgeforward.com/blog/ or https://catalyte.io/news-ideas/

The concept of an apprentice or apprenticeship goes back centuries. Traditionally, they were a way for people to learn a trade from a master craftsman, in return for helping that craftsperson with their business. The technology industry is now applying that same concept to software developers – offering on-the-job-training as an apprentice instead of paid training at college or a coding bootcamp. How do these apprenticeships work? What are their advantages for employers and employees alike? And where in an overall talent sourcing strategy does an apprentice model fit? Eliot Pearson, Catalyte's VP of technical development, discusses the different apprenticeships and how companies can take advantage of this modernized form of training.

According to Forrester Research's Future of IT 2018 report, 50% of all digital transformations fail. With success being no more reliable than a coin flip, why even bother to undergo this process? Greg Kintzele, principal of business strategy for digital transformation at Catalyte, explains why transforming isn't optional and how to ensure that your organization falls on the right side of the 50/50 digital transformation divide.

How should a technology company set up a mentoring program? What is the difference between mentoring, coaching and training? Are there differences in how generations of workers approach the mentoring process? Catalyte's CTO Rob Mansell has established mentoring programs in multiple IT organizations throughout his career. He shares his insights into what works, who should be involved and how to measure the success of such programs.

How development teams are performing is a key metric any IT organization should know. But, as your IT organization grows, and teams adopt their own "flavor" of Agile, it can be hard to compare teams or get a full organizational perspective on performance. Companies can use organization assessments to look for opportunities to improve multiple teams simultaneously, save time and money while improving agility. Catalyte's Les Grove explains what goes into creating as assessment, what it should measure and who needs to be involved in the process.

Will artificial intelligence (AI) be a force for good or evil in 2019? Tom Iler, Catalyte's chief product officer, discusses the different paths AI could take and what we can do to make sure it helps, rather than hurts, society.