Lately, it seems like I am hearing more and more from friends who have lost jobs or have had to compromise pay or position in order to get new jobs. (My own phone hasn’t exactly been ringing off the hook with new consulting opportunities.) But while we’re hunkering down to weather the storm, there are things we can do to help ensure our survival and even position ourselves advantageously for when this current crisis blows over.

Attitude Is Everything

During times like these, companies often focus more on expense cutting than on revenue generation. Often, this is a knee jerk response to bad economic news—not a well thought out business strategy. I see many companies closing offices and laying off staff to save money without first considering whether there are new business opportunities that can be leveraged using that staff. If your competition is downsizing, then it stands to reason that they won’t be as responsive to their customers. Is there ever a better time to move in and demonstrate your competitive advantage to win new business?

In-House IT: "I" Can Do It!

Even if you don’t have direct influence in the boardroom to keep your company from making troubling decisions, there are things you can do to help your department and certainly to help yourself.

If you work at an in-house IT shop and are one of the True Believers in the IBM i, then this is a golden opportunity to demonstrate to your management the power of the platform. When times are good, your management is more likely to be swayed by the salesman du jour and his magical "Windows server farm," but today’s economy is one in which the i can shine. Make sure that everyone up the ladder is fully aware of your group’s ability to enhance your applications quickly in order to seize new business opportunities or realize greater efficiencies. Play your cards right, and when all of this is over, you’ll be able to remind your management that you and your IBM i saved the day and that no Windows server farm on the planet will ever do the same.

Here are a few things you can implement in your company with our beloved box:

• Establish a meaningful web presence. At a minimum, make it possible for your customers to place orders and make payments online.
• Optimize A/P and A/R functions so that your company keeps its money as long as possible while collecting as much money as possible from customers as soon as possible.
• Implement a Business Process Management (BPM) solution. At a minimum, start moving towards BPM by looking at your applications in terms of the integrated workflows that make up your business processes. Workflow automation goes a long, long way toward eliminating unnecessary expense, and flexible process management solutions also allow you to more readily accommodate new business.

If you don’t already have the skills to maximize every aspect of the IBM i, then take the initiative today and enhance your skill set. Specifically, make sure that you're a pro with:

• RPG
• SQL
• DB2
• WDSc, RDi, RDi SOA, RBD, or any other Eclipse-based tool
• An enterprise-level web language/technology, such EGL or Java A web hosting technology, such as WebSphere Application Server or Tomcat

If you are already up to speed with these, then expand your skills even further with Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (LAMP) for a cross-platform advantage.

Possessing these skills will serve you in two ways. First, it will fully demonstrate your effectiveness to your management. I can almost guarantee you that if there is a cutback at your company, stagnate workers will be the first shown to the door. And if you are laid off, you'll have modern, marketable skills to take into the job market.

Consultants: Stay Smart

An economic slump can actually work to a consultant’s advantage: Companies will often defer hiring full-time people and use consultants instead. As with IT staff, it is imperative that a consultant have a modern skill set. In fact, where an in-house person might be able to get away with letting skills stagnate, a successful consultant never can. Even if you aren’t planning to work on systems other than the IBM i, you should learn others. This applies to programming languages, tools, and, to an even greater extent, web technologies. It seems obvious, but the more you know about a wide range of systems, languages, and tools, the better your chances of being the consultant that gets the job.

If you have been working in a limited field, then expand your knowledge to other business sectors—it might make the difference between eating well and starving. If you are an independent consultant, consider working with a consulting group to gain exposure to more types of businesses. The more business knowledge you can demonstrate, the better your chances of finding and landing new opportunities.

But just as you might avoid buying a gift card from a company reported to be on the verge of bankruptcy, stay aware of the financial position of a potential client. I'm not saying that you should turn down work based on concerns about a client's financial predicament, but at least make arrangements for partial payment in advance or the quickest payment possible.

In closing, I’ll just say that while the economy may be depressed, we don’t have to be. I lamented to a friend and former colleague today that what happened to our former employer was a shame. I said that I hoped we would work together again someday. He said, “It would be great to get the old crew together again, but in the meantime, we’ll just have to be thankful for what we have.” Amen to that.

Dan Darnell (dan.darnell@sbcglobal.net [2]) is an independent consultant in Little Rock, Arkansas and the author of Java and the AS/400 Second Edition (29th Street Press).