CompTIA Blog

A look at the week of July 18 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) proposed creating a Senate committee on cybersecurity to draft comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.  A recent report shows the Internal Revenue Service has been remiss in notifying taxpayers when their information has been compromised.  Analysts believe federal agencies are likely to continue federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s cloud-first policy after he steps down next month.McCain Calls for Comm ...

Did I say “big”?  I mean BIG. HUGE. Prizes that make me want to rewrite the rules so that CompTIA staff can win.  But alas, I’m not eligible.  All the better for you and the rest of the Breakaway attendees.During Breakaway in Washington, D.C., August 1-4, visit booths in the Technology Vendor Fair, vote for Best of Breakaway Awards, attend educational sessions, network at meetings and donate to the Creating IT Futures Foundation to earn tag points and win great prizes. You get points based on th ...

The CompTIA Educational Foundation, which since 1998 has been helping unemployed and other at-risk individuals find careers in information technology, has a new name: the Creating IT Futures Foundation. The new name will help to distinguish the Foundation from other continuing education and educational programs within CompTIA, while also positioning the Foundation to reach a wider donor base. As it pondered a new name, the Foundation’s Board of Directors considered the essence of what the orga ...

This year at our Breakaway conference in August in Washington, D.C., you’ll have three chances to gather in-depth market research information so that you can make the best decisions in finding your next business opportunities.First, grab your lunch on Tuesday, August 2nd, and join us for a 60-minute dive into our most recent research and market intelligence with CompTIA’s three top analysts. Get a sampling of research highlights designed to enhance your understanding of technology, business mode ...

The CompTIA Educational Foundation, which since 1998 has been helping unemployed and other at-risk individuals find careers in information technology, has a new name: the Creating IT Futures Foundation.The new name will help to distinguish the Foundation from other continuing education and educational programs within CompTIA, while also positioning the Foundation to reach a wider donor base.As it pondered a new name, the Foundation’s Board of Directors considered the essence of what the organiza ...

Whether you’re listening intently to the federal debt ceiling and budget discussions or not keeping up at all with the debate, what happens in Washington, D.C., over the next week could have a major impact on the channel. If no deal is reached by August 2nd (coincidentally, day two of CompTIA Breakaway, the other big event in the nation’s capital), experts say the federal government will be forced to default on some of its loans or at least reduce payments significantly to some companies or indi ...

From time to time, we give focus to our CompTIA members’ activities or views in relation to specific policy matters. In May we shared with you developments surrounding patent reform legislation in the U.S. Congress. Below is an opinion piece by CompTIA Member Kevin McDonald of Alvaka.I’ve noticed a lot of gratuitous talk by our legislators about being all for small business and protecting the individual. They bandy about rhetoric about the Constitution and consistently are finding rights that a ...

In February, we shared information on efforts to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act. Recently, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) released a discussion draft of that legislation and was scheduled to hold a hearing to “mark up” the proposed legislation on June 29. That mark-up hearing has now been postponed until Wednesday July 20. We will keep you apprised of new developments and welcome your thoughts and reaction to the discussion draft. The legisl ...

We continue to see the most significant challenge facing small technology firms is the shortage of capital.  Congress has known about this issue for the last few years, however, there has been no substantial move to address the need.  And while the Recovery Act provided much needed funding for many businesses and government jurisdictions, small businesses were left without cover.  Of course, some noted that small businesses could apply for SBA loans, however, the banks were simply not lending.  ...

In a previous post, I wrote about business valuation and how it varies according to who’s in the market looking to buy (including the different types of buyers). But how can you systematically drive up the value of your company?   Increasing the size and profitability of your business is the surest way to increase its value.  That’s easy to say, but which ideas are most suitable for the owner of an IT service company?  First let’s focus on specific suggestions that can increase your top-line rev ...

After investing the time and energy to achieve your CompTIA certification goals, would you sit back and wait for new clients to knock on your door? Of course not! Most solution providers want to leverage their new skills and use this recognition to improve their revenue and industry standing— but what’s the best way to accomplish that objective?One proven method is to take an additional step and get your CompTIA Authorized Service Center (ASC) credential, which will not only validate your organi ...

When the small business lending legislation (HR 5297) was enacted into law last September, it was heralded as a step to stimulate loans to small businesses by community banks.  Under this legislation, $30 billion has been directed to a “Small Business Lending Fund” administered by the Department of Treasury.  The purpose of this fund is to provide capital investments in small banks (community banks with assets of $10 billion or less) coupled with incentives for those banks to increase small busi ...

Despite our transition to a credit and electronic payment-based economy, when determining the strength of your business, cash is still king. The effective management of money, particularly the amount of currency you have on hand at critical points in time, is essential to all organizations and their growth plans. Without the proper amount of cash available, it can get dicey when trying to meet your payroll and current expense obligations in a busy month when you have a significant increase in ma ...

Earlier this week, health insurer WellPoint, Inc. agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit in which the company was accused of failure to properly notify officials that a security breach occurred. According to the Indiana Attorney General’s office (which filed the suit), social security numbers, financial information and health records for as many as 32,051 people were potentially accessible through an unsecured website over a five month period starting in late 2009. As specified in India ...

In an effort to shine a light on a critical federal education initiative repeatedly in the crosshairs of deficit hawks in recent years, CompTIA looked toward a leading local lawmaker this month. When Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) paid a visit to Roger C. Sullivan High School’s Medical Academy in Chicago on June 1, he was shown the inner workings of just one example of just one school system’s use of Career and Technical Education programs that teeter on the financial precipice due to federal fundin ...