Welcome to Ajasa!

Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top predictions for IT organizations and users for 2011 and beyond. Analysts said that the predictions high-light the significant changes in the roles played by technology and IT organizations in business, the global economy and the lives of individual uses. The predictions show clear linkage of IT investments and business results becoming an imperative for IT organizations.

The top predictions include:

• By 2015, a G20 nation’s critical infrastructure will be disrupted and damaged by online sabo-tage.
• By 2015, new revenue generated each year by IT will determine the annual compensation of most new Global CIOs.
• By 2015, information –smart businesses will in-crease recognized IT spending per head by 60 percent.
• By 2015, tools and automation will eliminate 25 percent of labor hours associated with IT ser-vices.
• By 2015, 20 percent of non-IT Global 500 com-panies will be cloud service providers.
• By 2014, 90 percent of organizations will sup-port corporate applications on personal devic-es.
• By 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets.
• By 2015, 10 percent of your online “friends” will be nonhuman.

Additional details are in the Gartner report “Gartner’s Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2011 and Beyond: IT’s Growing Transparency” which is available on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1278413.

Download the rest of our August 2011 Newsletter

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Shelleye Williamson and myself as co-founders of Ajasa Technologies Inc. This is the first edition of Ajasa Technologies’ newsletter and, many of you may not know, but, Ajasa currently has employees in 21 states across the United States. The intent of this newsletter is to provide a vehicle to communicate with employees across all of Ajasa. My column will be a regular part of the newsletter and I will focus on providing business updates and sharing insights/lessons learned during my 29 years as a corporate employee, contractor, and entrepreneur.

One of the first lessons I learned as an entrepre-neur is that every day at Ajasa Technologies is a new adventure. We have received lots of recognition and awards for our accomplishments over the years and also have felt the pain of projects or initiatives not meeting expectations. It has been and continues to be a marvelous journey that I would not trade for any other lifestyle.

A related learning to this initial lesson is that we often learn more through pain or failure than through success. The last few months have been very interesting and yet extremely challenging for the business. This provided an opportunity to reflect on past business decisions, an opportunity to explore and implement new business solutions, and experience the satisfaction of successful implementation. I have learned much more in the last few months in a challenging business climate than many years of prosperity when the economy was roaring.

The slowdown in the economic recovery this spring has been a challenging period of time for all organizations. We have lost more em-ployees/contractors than we have placed on new assignments during this time period. This hurts! This change is being driven by two major reasons:

1. We saw many project extensions denied because of budget cuts with our customers
2. We experienced a larger than normal conversion of employees/contractors to regular W-2 employees by our customers. The conversion of employees/contractors by our customers reflects very positively on the quality of individuals employed at Ajasa and the quality of work they do for our customers. It also positions Ajasa for the future with individuals operating in key roles for our customers, whom we will continue to have relationships with to build the business.

A young entrepreneur recently asked me about the greatest challenge they could expect to face as they work to grow and develop a newly founded business. My response: Finding talented individuals for all roles to move the business ahead. In other words, getting the right individuals on the team! Related to getting the right individuals on the team is creating a sustainable work culture that allows individuals to perform at their highest levels while experiencing satisfaction, enjoyment from their work, and the right level of work/life balance.

The ability to find the right talent for the team, creating a positive work environment, and culture which allows individuals to perform at their highest level remains the key factor that separates or-ganizations that are successful with those that are not successful over the long run. Organizations that learn how to do this successfully are better positioned to win.

I will expand on these concepts and my vision for Ajasa in future issues of this newsletter. In the meantime, thanks for your time, and always, for your hard work in keeping Ajasa one of the top organizations in our field.

Best Regards,

Tony Williamson

Download the rest of our August 2011 Newsletter

Ajasa grew rapidly for the first 12 years of business without significant marketing efforts. But in the last two years our growth has halted and instead we are simply maintaining. Luckily, we have been able to remain profitable and avoid downsizing through it all.

Tough economic times like these are eye opening and make you really think about the fundamentals of business to increase revenues. For us, this meant examining our processes, procedures and systems to determine new ways to position ourselves for the growth we were accustomed to.

Part of that positioning for Ajasa involves a new identity and website. We want people to really understand who we are and what we do—through communication that better-reflects our brand today.

Take a minute to explore the new Ajasa.com. We plan to update it often, so stop back soon. Or sign up for our newsletter to get that content delivered directly to your inbox.

I encourage you to share your thoughts—on the blog, the site, the economy and more—and provoke conversations through comments and posts.