hitting the wire*

Trophy Cabinet for sale

DISPLAY CABINET, one of the most elegant and functional display cabinets currently on the market.

Features

Fine timber details
4 leadlight options
4 side access doors (there is maximum frontal display)
Adjustable shelves are extra deep to accommodate large items
Halogen down lights
Mirror back with glass shelves provide max illumination of collectables from top to bottom.

To give indication of size of the Cabinet it previously held the following:

• Rugby League World Cup
• Rugby Union World Cup
• International Rules Trophy
• Tri Nations Trophy
• Super-12 Trophy
• Trans-Tasman Touch Football Trophy
• Davis Cup
• Hockey World Championship Trophy

and the:

• Bledisloe Cup.
• SA vs Australia home Test series 2008/09
• SA vs Australia home ODI series 2009

All these trophies are now overseas and the Cabinet is excess to requirements.

To make an offer call R Stuart, R Ponting, S Mortlock or P. Fitzsimons who once commented:

"…the Australian Cabinet is groaning under the weight of all the trophies!"

They can be contacted on: 1800-LOST-THE-LOT

(from my brother in the land of the long white cloud... where else? ;)

Vacancy for a skilled business analyst in Cape Town

I need the guy that this person will be replacing, so if you know of a BA looking for a challenging yet fun job in Cape Town, let me know! ;) 

Dave

A well established Development House seek skilled business analysts with a good knowledge of MS SQL and systems design to work on development projects in a variety of industries. The successful applicant will be equally comfortable dealing with business users, senior management and technical development staff.

Monthly salary : R25,000+ (plus excellent benefits) – dependant on skills and experience

The primary functions of this job are to:
· Analyse business requirements and design systems solutions to meet these requirements.
· Model and design data structures to support requirements.
· Develop, test and implement the solutions designed – using the SQL and a revolutionary rapid development toolkit.
· Administer MS SQL Databases in the development, QA and production environments

The successful candidate would be responsible, among other duties, for the following:
· Facilitate requirements gathering and data modeling sessions.
· Reading, understanding and interpreting business requirements (conceptual data models and business process narratives).
· Interviewing business users face-to-face to clarify detailed requirements and expectations.
· Analysing the information gathered and clearly defining the system objects required to support the defined requirements (including physical database, screen and report designs).
· Designing, demonstrating and modifying prototypes in order to understand requirements.
· Writing SQL queries and database update procedures.
· Testing systems developed to ensure that they meet the requirements of the business and are technically sound and robust.
· Implementing the systems developed and managing changes to system in production.
· Creating and managing databases to support the development, QA and production requirements.

Skills Required
· A degree or diploma in IT with a business focus (eg. Bus. Sci or B Com (IS)) will be advantageous.
· At least 5 years experience in systems development projects.
· Understanding relational databases, relational theory and SQL and writing complex SQL.
· Programming in MS SQL stored procedures
· Understanding business processes and best practices.
· Generating new ideas and applying these into the wider context.
· Conveying information fluently, interpreting and clarifying details and explaining rationale.

Tighten that telecoms belt one more notch!

Being in the 'least cost routing" business always had a sliver lining to the cloud of an economic downturn; it was easier to persuade people that a change to their existing telecoms services might just be needed right now.  I few months back while quoting on reducing telecoms spend at a local corporate, I compiled a post which covered some practical tips for cutting costs. 

While browsing through some articles on silicon.com I came across a similar article by Rob Bamforth of Quocirca an Business & IT research outfit I was unaware of until today, which has some sound advice.  I'll summarise my take on the essence of his article, but it is worth a read.

1. Cut back on fat, but not muscle or bone - assess the real business value of each cost category in your budget, before whipping out the scalpel.
2. Make sure the muscle is toned - are SLA's delivering on business (as opposed to IT) priorities?
3. Push for better deals, consider alternative suppliers, rethink the outsource question (yet again?).
4. Converge - budgets as opposed to technology.  One budget decision-maker on all IT spend can ensure there is less waste.
5. Measure and take control.  If you've not implemented dashboards of some sort to keep an eye on usage, you're going to be cursing yourself now!

Nice one Mr Bamforth, some good sense there (especially the bit about 'getting outside help', nudge, nudge, wink, wink! ;) ).

Dave.