YouthWorks is a job program housed in the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Employment Development. Young people are matched to a local job site, earn a paycheck, and attend personal development workshops. The program will run for five weeks, from July to August. We ask senior program manager Rasheem about the program’s impact.

The post NPR’s “On the Record” features senior program manager of Rasheem about MOED’s Youth program’s impact. appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

This powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) job application system automates and streamlines the employment application process, allowing you to more quickly connect participants with more jobs. The auto-match feature is designed to further help summer youth employment programs (SYEP) and youth employment programs (e.g., YouthWorks, Youth Build, Earn and Learn) match candidates in local communities to a variety of employment and educational opportunities, as well as development programs. Learn more at our next virtual lunch & learn.

With all the candidates and employers in your program’s database, it becomes cumbersome to manually sort through and select the right candidate for a position. YES’s auto-match feature does the work for you, using common skills, interests, location, language, and other chosen factors to match candidates to the right positions. You can also weight factors based on importance. All that your program administrator needs to do is set the skillset criteria in order for the system to match applicants to open positions.

Automating the jobs matching process saves time, resources, and manpower for programs like yours. By reducing required resources and user error, YES increases your program’s participation and success. The auto-match feature increases productivity and efficiency. Our system is easy to tailor for any program, including nonprofits that need to organize and match volunteers.

Sign up for a one-on-one demo so we can show you how easy this is.

Client Success: YES has enabled our clients to streamline and scale their local youth employment programs. The number of applications they manage and process has multiplied due to process automation and the ease of access to our web-based system. For example, since we transitioned Baltimore’s YouthWorks program from using manual paper processes to web-based YES in 2013, the program has grown from processing a few thousand applications to 16,000 per season.

Do more with YES. If you’re facing any challenges or looking for solutions with your current applications process, sign up for a demo of YES to learn how organizations like yours can auto-match candidates to positions based on the criteria of employers and applicants. We’ll walk you through the benefits of the system so you can see firsthand how simple it is to improve your program’s processes with YES.

Match youth to their future careers and employers to the right candidates. Don’t waste more time trying to do it manually! Make sure your program thrives this year.

The post Auto-Match: The Youth Employment System’s Highly Requested Feature is Here appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

The post Use Grant Funding to Implement our Youth Employment System appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

Imtranur Rahman, AWS solutions architect, and Robert Pinder, Digicon cloud development manager, simplify AWS forecasting capabilities, cost optimization, and budgets. They discuss how to monitor your usage, set up alerts, reduce costs and scale with EC2 auto-scaling, and more.

Watch the Discussion with Digicon & AWS: How to Save Cost with AWS Cloud

In-Depth Look at What is Covered in the Webinar

AWS Budgets

AWS Budgets enables you to set a budget and alerts for when you exceed, or are forecasted to exceed, your budgeted cost or usage amount.

We can help you understand the true performance needs of your resources, as well as leverage the right pricing model and storage class. AWS offers many types of storage based on your application’s needs, and it’s important to leverage the right class of storage to be cost efficient. Digicon helps to identify ways to optimize your AWS infrastructure, improve security and performance, reduce costs, and monitor service quotas. We offer a free consultation to discuss your AWS security, S3 bucket permissions, security groups, service limits, and more.

By implementing the tips shared in the lunch & learn, we have been able to reduce costs for our client Unanet. All of Unanet’s systems are now virtual instead of being physical, costly, dedicated, vendor-managed servers. Using AWS, Digicon routinely resizes individual compute and storage resources that previously had to be bought with a three- to five-year capacity plan in mind. This has eliminated Unanet’s capacity limit issues without having to predict its long-term needs and requirements. With its systems in the cloud environment, Unanet has direct, immediate control over its expenses and has optimized costs with the pay-per-use model and Amazon’s cost analysis tools. Digicon improved Unanet’s continuity and recovery issues by spreading out the elevations across multiple availability zones, ensuring its systems remain available and reliable.

After providing AWS and consulting services for our other client, Patriot Realty, the company is now well established in the cloud and has more visibility into its IT costs. Now Patriot has a single bill that represents all costs, rather than numerous individual bills to track for separate services. Implementing cloud-based services has also eliminated the need to maintain and buy new hardware and software licenses, saving several thousands per year on licenses alone.

Standard IT Services You Need to Grow

For those of you starting small and now looking to improve your office infrastructure and move to a remote setup: Digicon can help you. We provide simple to advanced IT consulting, hardware, and managed services. No matter the maturity stage of your company, work with us if you need:

• A complete IT solution within a certain budget
• Consulting on how to scale and migrate applications
• Help to send out emails securely
• Hourly support to set up your printer and other business devices
• A WordPress website rebuild hosted on AWS

Our comprehensive IT solutions allow you to standardize your office IT and entire IT infrastructure. With 30-plus years of experience in the IT industry, Digicon will help you operate in line with best standardized practices. We are reliable and can help you save money—so quit worrying about your IT environment and software updates!

Set up a consultation with our engineers to discuss solutions and determine how we can help your team reduce IT operational cost. The consultation is completely free and gives you the opportunity to learn about cost-effective solutions to your specific needs.

Set up your consultation now for a time that works best for you.

We are excited to walk through your IT environment and processes to help you find a solution, whether it be finding an appropriate software-as-a-service application or helping you decide what the best IT solution is for your company to scale.

The post A Talk with Digicon & AWS: How to Save Cost with AWS Cloud appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

G-CERTI performed the appraisal. This appraisal required examining and documenting all our processes and making sure that they are predictable and consistent, so that our products and services reliably meet our customers’ expectations. By achieving this certification, Digicon has demonstrated our strong customer focus, defined process approaches, and dedication to continual improvement. Our customers benefit from Digicon’s stable, established business structure and the knowledge that we follow management processes that are proven and practiced worldwide.

“Digicon takes great pride in our consistent service quality, processes, and improvements,” said Digicon President John J. Wu. “We have followed a customer-based approach since inception; achieving ISO certification for another year means our customers can continue to be assured of our gold-standard ability to support their needs.”

To find out more about our ISO 9001:2015 appraisal, please reach out to sales@digicon.com or visit our certifications page.

ABOUT DIGICON

Digicon Corporation has been innovating since 1985 and remains a trusted IT service provider today. We provide solutions and services centered on business IT services, cloud and infrastructure, web conferencing, and business applications. Our experience and process-oriented culture, developed over 35 years, continue to drive innovation and quality in our services. Our clients, both small and large, in industry, government, and academia can count on us to deliver personalized, comprehensive solutions that suit their needs and exceed their expectations. For more information, visit www.digicon.com.

CONTACT US

Name: Mike Laur

Title: Manager, Contracts/Procurement

Email Address: mlaur@digiconasp.com

Phone Number: (301) 721-6338

The post Digicon Corporation Re-Certified for ISO 9001:2015 appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

We can’t wait to see everyone at The Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC. Stop by our booth in the Exhibitor’s Hall, located in the State and East Ballroom, at table #9! Learn about the success of our current clients, sign up for a free YES demo, and participate in our raffle on Tuesday, November 9 to potentially win AirPods.

Official exhibit hours:

• Monday, November 8: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
• Tuesday, November 9: 7:30 am – 5:00 pm
• Wednesday, November 10: 7:30 am – 11:00 am

Learn more about the conference here: www.summerlearning.org/national-conference 

For questions, email us at info@digicon.com.

The post Digicon at NSLA Summer Changes Everything appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

Over and over again, our clients tell us they face challenges retaining IT staff due to the high turnover in tech. That’s where a managed service provider (MSP) can really make a positive difference for your business. With someone else managing your technology services, you save on payroll costs, reduce your IT headaches, and get results from seasoned experts—and you don’t have to worry about any of the hiring.

Digicon is an MSP with an unusually high retention rate in the IT industry. The engineers on our team have been with us for 15 to 20 years, constantly learning and training to handle new products and systems as technology has evolved. They remain experts in their fields with a variety of Microsoft and Amazon Web Services certifications. We even have service desk team members who have been with Digicon for at least five years, in an area that is particularly notorious for high turnover.

As an MSP, we also focus on preventing big IT issues, rather than only responding once something is already broken. MSPs stay on top of what your business needs to keep its technology environment running smoothly, such as when patches and updates are set to release. Worries about network monitoring and regular system updates shift off your work plate and over to us. With the MSP taking care of both the staffing and maintenance for your IT, you’re able to focus on the core goals and growth of your company.

An MSP has already invested a great deal of time, resources, and effort into establishing itself within the IT industry. Established partnerships with major hardware and services companies—such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Cisco—are essential to not only stay up to date in the field, but also have an inside track to the best deals in the market. Every minute spent by an MSP’s IT staff to test new technology such as cloud services, attend seminars and conferences, and obtain major tech certifications is a minute you don’t have to think about doing the same yourself, with your own staff and business resources.

This is how an MSP saves both costs and time for its customers. We put our tech expertise, seasoned staff, and industry connections to work for you.

In addition to giving you access to the right engineers and specialists when you need them, Digicon can also help provide solutions that will save your company time and money. We have a downloadable self-assessment to help you determine your business’s areas of concern and specific needs. Then, contact us for a free consultation!

The post Solution for High Business IT Turnover appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

We love to work with organizations and nonprofits that help provide employment to youth. Many programs use our Youth Employment System (YES) to match tens of thousands of jobs to local youths and jumpstart their careers. YES is an application system that does it all, with features including timesheet tracking, web conferencing, and auto-matching.

New Castle County Summer Youth Employment Program and the City of Baltimore’s Mayor’s Office of Employment Development have already seen significant success with YES.

Say yes to YES! Join our free lunch and learn series to see how you can accelerate the growth of your employment program: www.digicon.com/yeslunchandlearn.

Sign up for a YES Lunch & Learn at a Time that Works for You:

• Sept. 2 at 2:00 PM — Streamline Your Employment Process and Grow Your Program with YES
• Sept. 29 at 2:30 PM — Automate Communication with Candidates and Employers
• Oct. 19 at 1:30 PM — One System to Do It All with Timesheets, Auto-Match, and Process Streamlining

Say Goodbye to Manual Employer-Candidate Matching

Learn about YES’s Features at our Lunch & Learn:

• Mobile-friendly
• Easy registration for employers to post their job openings
• Easy registration for youth to submit their applications
• Process and manage youth and employer applications (for administrators)
• Automated matching available for youth to be placed in matched positions
• Generate batch emails
• System-level settings to manage globally set values such as program deadlines, standard codes, etc.
• Run reports with customized filters applied
• Send both manual and automated emails
• Send text messages for upcoming certifications or any events
• Communicate timely status of applications to users
• Manage content on the home page, which provides greater flexibility in updating season dates and other content

The post Job Application System for Employment Programs appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

IT Best Practices

To begin, check whether a service desk provider follows the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework. ITIL contains industry-standard best practices for service desk areas including incident management and request fulfillment. These guiding principles are used to establish the architecture, processes, procedures, standards, communications tools, and management discipline to support any organization’s objective. In addition, in an era of cloud technologies, a service desk provider that is familiar with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Well-Architected Framework will serve you well. This framework provides a consistent approach for businesses and IT partners to evaluate architectures and implement designs that can scale over time.

Technology Skillset

You want a service desk with staff technicians who are well qualified in major IT systems and the latest technologies. IT professionals do coursework and testing to receive certifications from industry leaders such as Microsoft and AWS. These relevant technology certifications prove that service desk staff are trained and knowledgeable in areas that are relevant to monitoring and maintaining your business’s IT systems. Some major certifications to look out for are Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (Windows 10, Office 365), AWS Cloud Practitioner, CompTIA A+ and Security+, and Cisco Certified Network Associate.

24/7 Live Assistance

IT issues don’t follow a 9:00 to 5:00 schedule. Finding out about network or systems issues in the morning when your employees arrive at the office only leads to work delays and frustration. However, if you have a service desk provider that offers 24/7 availability, the technicians will monitor your IT systems beyond standard business hours and start working to resolve any issues as soon as they happen. That’s also why we recommend finding an IT service desk provider with qualified technicians who actually answer calls and emails themselves: live assistance, as opposed to automated menus and bots, fully centers the customer’s experience and needs. You and your employees will be more satisfied and less stressed with live assistance as your first point of contact with a service desk.

Trusted Personnel

Your service desk provider must be an organization that you can trust to handle your company information and data. We recommend you select a provider that conducts background investigations to determine that staff members can handle sensitive business information. For example, for government-level work, someone who passes a Public Trust investigation is cleared to perform work that requires access to private proprietary systems or other protected materials. For commercial businesses, a police background check is sufficient to determine that staff are trustworthy to handle enterprise data and IT. Having a baseline for personnel and data security is very important to establish trust between you and your service desk provider.

Based in the US

Overseas outsourcing for service desk technical assistance is very common currently. However, there is benefit to using an onshore service desk that is closer to the community it actually serves. A provider in the US, and even your local area, is able to deliver a more personal service than one based offshore. Being based in the US means your provider is already well versed in the compliance, security, and service level requirements that apply to your business. It also allows the opportunity to establish a stronger understanding of your business’s needs and priorities so the service desk can support you knowledgeably.

If you’re starting to evaluate an IT service desk to meet all these criteria, then look no further than Digicon. Our 24/7/365 service desk is based in northern Virginia and follows the ITIL framework. It is staffed by technicians who hold major industry certifications, pass thorough background checks, and are always available to take service requests by phone or email. For more information or to receive a free consultation, please contact us!

The post 5 Criteria to Evaluate an IT Service Desk appeared first on Digicon Corporation.

No More Paper Timesheets

Based on our research and current experience with customers, many youth employment programs use cumbersome processes with multiple applications involved. Submission steps may include printing paper timesheets, scanning the filled sheets, and emailing files up the approvals chain. Manually printing, filling, and submitting timesheets creates issues with organization and tracking: the important information in these papers ends up separated in a number of email chains each pay period, with the individual files needing to be stored physically and/or digitally. YES’s timesheet process is automated so that documents don’t need to be emailed back and forth. Approvals at each level trigger the system to prompt the next person in the workflow to continue the process, all the way until the timesheet receives its final stamp of approval.

An Interactive System

Digicon’s YES timesheet tracking software is a modern solution designed to facilitate communication among those involved in the approval process flow. If a timesheet is rejected and needs revision, personnel can leave comments to explain what is incorrect or needs to be clarified. Automated emails from the system communicate these comments and any status changes at every level of the process flow. Individuals involved in the approval process flow are also able to log in and access timesheets from both current and previous time periods.

Data Security for Peace of Mind

YES already includes built-in security features to protect the private information of minors and other participants in youth programs. A manual timesheet process that mixes physical paperwork with digital submission risks security breaches at multiple points—paper timesheets can be misplaced or not disposed properly, and scanned information passes through multiple email accounts from both worksites and the youth program itself. YES stores and protects youth, worksite, and program data in one place.

YES is purpose-built to enhance the registration and matching processes of youth employment programs. Now, with the new timesheet feature, Digicon’s YES goes even further to support youth-focused organizations. If you’d like to improve your program’s efficiency and organization with YES, please contact us for a free consultation!

Digicon also holds regular lunch and learn sessions with small business and youth program representatives about YES and other offerings. Sign up for the next lunch & learn at this link to get details and receive the meeting link.

The post YES Adds a New Timesheet Tracking Feature appeared first on Digicon Corporation.