Crystal Reports Training in Reading, Pennsylvania

Let's face it, IT roles have evolved and are no longer meant for the IT department alone. Most departments tend to have a technical person that can help make sense of data. These days, businesses encourage data democratization, meaning that everyone in the business is responsible for the information that the organization receives. Departments no longer have to wait for data to pass through IT before they receive it. The departments get information as it comes. Then, they make decisions based on that data.

IT Job Roles and Responsibilities

1. Project Manager

A project manager, in this case, is someone that plays a managerial role in a company’s project. In fact, this is one of the most important IT job roles. The manager is responsible for his or her team. He or she makes sure that deadlines are met, and the project proceeds as planned. It mainly includes planning, design, initiation, monitoring, execution, and control.

2. IT Director

In most cases, the term director is associated with big positions in a company, and is often associated with a board role. As one of the top IT job roles, the IT director is responsible for planning, managing and executing the core-infrastructure of a company. The primary role of the IT director is to oversee all the technology operations within the firm. The director then evaluates what his or her team does to make sure that the activities are in line with firm’s main objectives. On top of that, the IT director makes sure that all departments have their technology needs met by his or her team.

3. IT Manager

The rank of an IT manager is definitely lower than that of a director, however, the role is still very crucial for any IT department. Every IT department has staff members that are meant to deliver results at the end of the day. The IT manager supervises most of the workers in the IT department. He or she is in charge of motivating them and making sure that they do what they are supposed to do. The IT manager’s roles include monitoring, planning, coaching, disciplining employees, and counseling.

4. Software Engineer

This position can also be referred to as a software architect, system engineer or application programmer. The main work typically involves creating and programming system-level software such as database systems, operating systems, and embedded systems. Their primary role is to ensure that they understand how both software and hardware work and to use them appropriately. However, the responsibilities don’t stop there. The software engineer is also required to interact with both colleagues and clients to explain which system or solution is going to be more suitable for use.

5. Systems Analyst

A systems analyst can also be called a solutions specialist, product specialist or a systems engineer. Their primary work mainly involves identifying, analyzing, and coming up with new information systems that will provide a viable solution. This is mostly done as a response to the requests of customers or just for the business. They also have to make sure that they determine the costs and total time required to bring the information systems into effect.

6. Helpdesk Support

There are times when your team could encounter system problems. Perhaps, a piece of hardware or software has malfunctioned. You need helpdesk support to deal with such issues. This is a professional that knows about common computer problems. Without them, business operations could stall because an employee can be stranded, and there’s no one to help.

7. Network Designer

As much as helpdesk support can solve most IT problems, there are other issues that they can’t solve. You may experience system shutdowns or slow internet. In that case, you need an expert in maintaining communication systems. These professionals will also be responsible for setting up cyber security systems for the organization.

IT involves many job roles and responsibilities that all work hand-in-hand to deliver results. As you begin your business, you should know about these roles so that you can know which ones are going to be the most suitable for your firm.

What is Design Thinking and How Does it Apply to HR?

[Jan, 28, 2020] |
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The Context Of Design Thinking And Its Application In Employee Skill Training

Design thinking is a crucial pillar in today’s problem-solving imperatives. In fact, it is being pursued as a unit course in various institutions across the globe, thus underlying its importance in aiding objective human thinking. It’s not a specific property for designers. Far from it, it has emerged as an innovative solution-seeking tool for all great inventors and innovators.

By description, it is a design methodology used for tackling complex problems that are virtually unknown or ill-defined, through a careful evaluation of the human needs involved, understandably restructuring the problem, by brainstorming to create many solutions, and by adopting a direct approach in testing and prototyping. It helps us come up with creative ways to solve nagging problems that stem from us and especially in the workplace setting.

The ‘overwhelmed/overburdened employee’ is a common term in HR offices across many organizations in the world. Employees are faced with a huge challenge in regards to coping with fast-paced technological and office changes in the working environment. This had led to a massive stagnation in productivity, prompting HR heads to look for new ways to reduce their employees’ stress and workload.

While evaluating many options, this model of thinking has posed as a helpful tool for HR managers when dealing with their vexed employees. IT training, in particular, has helped shape the productive realms of many companies out there.

Let’s explore how this thinking domain can be used to plan employee skill training:

Empathize

If you want to show concern for your employees, first empathize with their situation. Seek to understand the needs of the employees deeply, what they lack, what they need, and the challenges that they are likely facing. This will act as the basis of plotting the problem and working on the next phase of solving it.

You can collect data in this phase through empathy maps and journey maps. In the latter, you endeavor to steadily track the day-to-day activities and tasks of employees. This is achieved through observations or structured interviews. In turn, it aids in elevating the thinking process.

Through empathy maps, you ponder on collected findings and synthesize them keenly. Here, you seek to establish how an employee is thinking, their feelings, and insights into the probable root cause of the problem.

Define the Problem

After a comprehensive analysis of the collected data; the problem definition phase should follow. The idea here is to locate the underlying root of the problem concisely. HR should seek to utilize an analysis framework to help address problems affecting the holistic being of all employees. Therefore, each issue would require a list of underlying causes: lack of motivation, lack of knowledge/understanding, or just lack of skill.

Once the root cause(s) are clearly defined, a clear problem statement should be drawn up alongside performance goals that are firmly based on actual drivers.

Think Solely About Employee-Based Solutions (iterative learning)

Conventionally, customers are at the heart of every organization’s dealings. They inspire and drive the company’s objectives because they are crucial in profit making. However, employees have greatly suffered while working ‘behind the scenes.’ Such situations have led to employees feeling discontent and work under immense pressure, which inevitably leads to underperformance. To avoid this, the experimental learning concept can be utilized by HR offices to engage employees more by creating solutions that directly suit the situations they encounter daily.

Here, trainers are removed as the center of focus. An iterative ‘reflection’ cycle is established to tap continuous employee feedback in a bid to sharpen their skills. This method helps employees adapt to new technology through a well established IT consulting network. In the long run, employees don’t forget how they handled a particular problem, and this effectively raises a firm’s productivity.

Support Employee Tasks with Simple Technology (Ideate)

The simplest way to support employee-working experience is by not sidelining them unprepared with changing technology processes. As an HR Manager, fully engage your employees when transitioning to new tech by making use of effective training or consulting services. Specific training needs can be assessed and addressed within the organization or with a third party industry expert.

According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends Report, design thinking was isolated as crucial in crafting the employee experience. 79% of those interviewed identified it as imperative. However, almost a similar percentage agreed that a lot of compliance programs and training are still based on outdated modes of meetings and processes.

The report also recommended the need to put necessary consideration on employees through proper IT training for far colossal efficiency. One way to make this work is by drawing a connected roadmap of skills and information needed at certain work intervals. Shedding off overwhelming and irrelevant amounts of data for new employees is vital in retaining their concentration and output. What’s more, a customizable app can help employees undertake appropriate tasks at the specified time, thus resulting in higher revenue for the long term.

Implementing an Intuitive Tech Learning Approach (Ideate)

The basis of this argument is that not every employee is the same. All of them are differently gifted and shouldn’t be forced to use one inflexible technology or system that doesn’t cater to their individual needs in a buzzing work environment. This mode of critical thinking brings to life personas such that fictive employees representing a defined group of external employees are drawn up. In this set-up, the personas should be able to learn and work efficiently within their own small environment while quickly utilizing their own skill set and the required information to make things work.

An HR manager can replicate this working scenario through the use of role-plays. This can be achieved by conducting short-term soft skills training sessions to sharpen their ability to handle similar situations. In the case of new technology, video-replays on how to use it in a one-on-one customer scenario can help relieve the pressure and spur the employee to be more productive.

Prototype and Testing

Here, the HR Manager should run a couple of tests to ensure whether the desired model of skill training is working. One way to get started is by crafting a simple prototype of the technology required, probably as a single module to establish its viability.

The new technology should be vigorously tested during prototyping to pinpoint any leaks, disjoints, or performance issues. Structured walkthroughs can be implemented to help employees navigate the solution through proper IT training sessions.

What’s more, HR should conduct sessions to get the employees’ views, emotions, or feelings regarding the new solution. In case of any cause for concern, the prototype should be improved until it meets the intermediate needs of its users.

Iterations are also a common occurrence in this phase. Refinements and alterations are curved out to make sure that the final thing suits every employee in some understandable capacity.

Wrapping Up

Design thinking is crucial in any organizational setting in making sure that employees sync properly with the technology in place. This will go a long way in improving their productivity.

Python Programming for Cisco Networking Engineers

[Jun, 25, 2018] |
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Wondering why Cisco is teaching network engineers Python in addition to their core expertise?

Yes, arguably there are many other tools available to use to automate the network without writing any code. It is also true that when code is absolutely necessary, in most companies software developers will write the code for the network engineers. However, networks are getting progressively more sophisticated and the ability for network engineers to keep up with the rate of change, scale of networks, and processing of requirements is becoming more of a challenge with traditional methodologies.

Does that mean that all network engineers have to become programmers in the future? Not completely, but having certain tools in your tool belt may be the deciding factor in new or greater career opportunities. The fact is that current changes in the industry will require Cisco engineers to become proficient in programming, and the most common programming language for this new environment is the Python programming language. Already there are more opportunities for those who can understand programming and can also apply it to traditional networking practices.

Cisco’s current job boards include a search for a Sr. Network Test Engineer and for several Network Consulting Engineers, each with "competitive knowledge" desired Python and Perl skills. Without a doubt, the most efficient network engineers in the future will be the ones who will be able to script their automated network-related tasks, create their own services directly in the network, and continuously modify their scripts.

Whether you are forced to attend or are genuinely interested in workshops or courses that cover the importance of learning topics related to programmable networks such as Python, the learning curve at the very least will provide you with an understanding of Python scripts and the ability to be able to use them instead of the CLI commands and the copy and paste options commonly used. Those that plan to cling to their CLI will soon find themselves obsolete.

As with anything new, learning a programming language and using new APIs for automation will require engineers to learn and master the skills before deploying widely across their network. The burning question is where to start and which steps to take next?

In How Do I Get Started Learning Network Programmability? Hank Preston – on the Cisco blog page suggest a three phase approach to diving into network programmability.

“Phase 1: Programming Basics

In this first phase you need to build a basic foundation in the programmability skills, topics, and technologies that will be instrumental in being successful in this journey. This includes learning basic programming skills like variables, operations, conditionals, loops, etc. And there really is no better language for network engineers to leverage today than Python. Along with Python, you should explore APIs (particularly REST APIs), data formats like JSON, XML, and YAML. And if you don’t have one already, sign up for a GitHub account and learn how to clone, pull, and push to repos.

Phase 2: Platform Topics

Once you have the programming fundamentals squared away (or at least working on squaring them away) the time comes to explore the new platforms of Linux, Docker, and “the Cloud.” As applications are moving from x86 virtualization to micro services, and now serverless, the networks you build will be extending into these new areas and outside of traditional physical network boxes. And before you can intelligently design or engineer the networks for those environments, you need to understand how they basically work. The goal isn’t to become a big bushy beard wearing Unix admin, but rather to become comfortable working in these areas.

Phase 3: Networking for Today and Tomorrow

Now you are ready to explore the details of networking in these new environments. In phase three you will dive deep into Linux, container/Docker, cloud, and micro service networking. You have built the foundation of knowledge needed to take a hard look at how networking works inside these new environments. Explore all the new technologies, software, and strategies for implementing and segmenting critical applications in the “cloud native” age and add value to the application projects.”

Community resources:

GitHub’s, PYPL Popularity of Programming Language lists Python as having grown 13.2% in demand in the last 5 years.

Python in the June 2018 TIOBE Index ranks as the fourth most popular language behind Java, C and C++.

Despite the learning curve, having Python in your tool belt is without a question a must have tool.

Automating The Boring Stuff With Python

[Aug, 12, 2019] |
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Python is a powerful tool that can be used for many automation tasks in the workplace. It’s notorious for being one of the most simple and versatile options available in the world of programming languages. For this reason, many people choose to automate an enormous amount of their workflow with Python. We’ve compiled a few ideas for automating the boring stuff using Python. Let’s take a look.

Managing Emails

Most businesses rely on emails being sent out regularly in order to ensure everything runs smoothly. Doing this by hand can be boring and time-consuming. To alleviate this, there are packages written with and for Python that enable you to automate certain aspects of this process. Adding and removing individuals from mailing lists can be automated as well, especially if your business has a policy to automatically add and remove people from certain mailing lists when certain conditions are met. For example, after a customer of yours doesn’t interact with your company after an extended period of time, it may be prudent to remove them from your mailing list, or you can send them a premade email reminding them of your services. This is just one way that you can save your company time and money using automation with Python.

Repetitive File System Operations

Even for personal tasks, Python excels at performing repetitive file system operations. For example, it can convert files, rename, move, delete, and sort files as much as you need it to. This can be useful in many ways. If you have a folder of mp3 files that you need to compress, this can be sped up using Python. Additionally, you can create a set of criteria that need to be met in order for a given file to be considered useless, and then delete it. As a side note, be extremely careful when automating any sort of file deletion or altering, because a bug in your program can cause severe damage to your data and even to your computer. Still, these tools are extremely powerful and can be life-saving when used properly.

Start-up Tasks

Whether you’re running a server or just using your own personal computer, there are always tasks that need to be done when your computer starts up, or you’re beginning a certain process. For example, you can automate the task of backing up your email inbox. This can ensure your files are being kept safe, and it can be triggered whenever your start up your computer. Additionally, if you need to collect or create any sort of logging data in order to document daily operations, you can use Python to alleviate some of these time-consuming processes.

Web Scraping

And finally, we have Web Scraping. This process may be slightly more advanced for a beginner Python user, but it doesn’t take a terribly long time to learn, and it opens up a whole new world of opportunity in terms of data collection and management. Web scraping is extremely important because it not only allows you to automatically search for certain pieces of content on the internet, but it can also alert you to changes and updates to existing websites. If your business relies on certain trends on social media, you can scrape sites while searching for the presence of certain keywords, and if you’re a stock trader or bitcoin guru, you can automate some of your price-checking and set custom alerts for price changes. The field of web scraping is enormous, and there is a practically infinite amount of content written on this particular subject. If you’re interested in learning more, there are vast amounts of free resources on the internet that can help you get started. Web scraping is certainly one of the most important skills to have in almost any line of work.

Get Creative!

At this point, we’d like to advise you to get more familiar with the libraries and APIs that are available to you. Each individual workflow is different and requires familiarity with different technologies. Because of this, you will know better than anybody else which items are worth automating and which aren’t. Some people try to automate everything, and some people prefer to do certain tasks manually, but sometimes spending a few hours automating a job that takes one minute will end up being a time-saver after only a few months.

We’ve gone over quite a few options in this article, but no single human alive is familiar with absolutely everything Python can do. Hopefully, you’re now more familiar with the options available to you, and you should now be better equipped to search for further information that is more relevant to your specific use case. Have fun digging into the many nuances and functionalities that the Python language has to offer!

Tech Life in Pennsylvania

The first daily newspaper was published in Philadelphia in 1784. In 1946 Philadelphia became home to the first computer. The State College Area High School was the first school in the country to teach drivers education in 1958. Pennsylvania has an impressive collection of schools, 500 public school districts, thousands of private schools, publicly funded colleges and universities, and over 100 private institutions of higher education. The University of Pennsylvania is also the Commonwealth's only, and geographically the most southern, Ivy League school.

Change is the end result of all true learning. Leo Buscaglia

other Learning Options

Software developers near Reading have ample opportunities to meet like minded techie individuals, collaborate and expend their career choices by participating in Meet-Up Groups. The following is a list of Technology Groups in the area.

Central PA Linux User Group · Pittsburgh .NET User Group (PGHDOTNET) · Pittsburgh System Administrators ·

Fortune 500 and 1000 companies in Pennsylvania that offer opportunities for Crystal Reports developers

Company Name	City	Industry	Secondary Industry
The Hershey Company	Hershey	Manufacturing	Food and Dairy Product Manufacturing and Packaging
Crown Holdings, Inc.	Philadelphia	Manufacturing	Metals Manufacturing
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.	Allentown	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Dick's Sporting Goods Inc	Coraopolis	Retail	Sporting Goods, Hobby, Book, and Music Stores
Mylan Inc.	Canonsburg	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Pharmaceuticals
UGI Corporation	King Of Prussia	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
Aramark Corporation	Philadelphia	Business Services	Business Services Other
United States Steel Corporation	Pittsburgh	Manufacturing	Manufacturing Other
Comcast Corporation	Philadelphia	Telecommunications	Cable Television Providers
PPL Corporation	Allentown	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
SunGard	Wayne	Computers and Electronics	IT and Network Services and Support
WESCO Distribution, Inc.	Pittsburgh	Energy and Utilities	Energy and Utilities Other
PPG Industries, Inc.	Pittsburgh	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Airgas Inc	Radnor	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Rite Aid Corporation	Camp Hill	Retail	Grocery and Specialty Food Stores
The PNC Financial Services Group	Pittsburgh	Financial Services	Banks
Universal Health Services, Inc.	King Of Prussia	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Hospitals
Erie Insurance Group	Erie	Financial Services	Insurance and Risk Management
Pierrel Research	Wayne	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Biotechnology
Unisys Corporation	Blue Bell	Computers and Electronics	IT and Network Services and Support
Lincoln Financial Group	Radnor	Financial Services	Insurance and Risk Management
AmerisourceBergen	Wayne	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech	Pharmaceuticals
Sunoco, Inc.	Philadelphia	Manufacturing	Chemicals and Petrochemicals
CONSOL Energy Inc.	Canonsburg	Energy and Utilities	Gas and Electric Utilities
H. J. Heinz Company	Pittsburgh	Manufacturing	Food and Dairy Product Manufacturing and Packaging

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the hartmann software group advantage

why take Crystal Reports Training with the hartmann software group?

A successful career as a software developer or other IT professional requires a solid understanding of software development processes, design patterns, enterprise application architectures, web services, security, networking and much more. The progression from novice to expert can be a daunting endeavor; this is especially true when traversing the learning curve without expert guidance. A common experience is that too much time and money is wasted on a career plan or application due to misinformation.

The Hartmann Software Group understands these issues and addresses them and others during any training engagement. Although no IT educational institution can guarantee career or application development success, HSG can get you closer to your goals at a far faster rate than self paced learning and, arguably, than the competition. Here are the reasons why we are so successful at teaching:

Learn from the experts.
1. We have provided software development and other IT related training to many major corporations in Pennsylvania since 2002.
2. Our educators have years of consulting and training experience; moreover, we require each trainer to have cross-discipline expertise i.e. be Java and .NET experts so that you get a broad understanding of how industry wide experts work and think.
Discover tips and tricks about Crystal Reports programming
Get your questions answered by easy to follow, organized Crystal Reports experts
Get up to speed with vital Crystal Reports programming tools
Save on travel expenses by learning right from your desk or home office. Enroll in an online instructor led class. Nearly all of our classes are offered in this way.
Prepare to hit the ground running for a new job or a new position
See the big picture and have the instructor fill in the gaps
We teach with sophisticated learning tools and provide excellent supporting course material
Books and course material are provided in advance
Get a book of your choice from the HSG Store as a gift from us when you register for a class
Gain a lot of practical skills in a short amount of time
We teach what we know…software
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