Lisa Vaas

About

Lisa Vaas is News Editor/Operations for eWEEK.com and also serves as editor of the Database topic center. She has focused on customer relationship management technology, IT salaries and careers, effects of the H1-B visa on the technology workforce, wireless technology, security, and, most recently, databases and the technologies that touch upon them. Her articles have appeared in eWEEK's print edition, on eWEEK.com, and in the startup IT magazine PC Connection.

As Salaries Slump, Women IT Pros Lose Ground

The recession has flattened IT salaries–particularly for women–according to a survey released this week by IT job board Dice Inc. Dice surveyed more than 61,000 technology professionals and found that tech salaries, which averaged $68,400 in 2001, were actually on the rise before they dropped off in the fourth quarter. The slump has hit women […]

CompTIA Unveils Entry-Level Security Certification

CompTIA announced last week it is developing a new, vendor-neutral, entry-level security certification that will address training on firewalls, viruses, user authentication and encryption. The Computing Technology Industry Association, in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., expects to name the certification by the end of the month. CompTIA is only now bringing together a committee to determine the […]

Keeping Customers Happy May Soon Pay Off in IT Paychecks

Looking for a fatter paycheck? If you work in the IT industry, satisfying customers may be the key. A new employee compensation report released earlier this week by NFO Prognostics, an IT customer research consultancy in Palo Alto, Calif., found that almost 93 percent of IT company executives think salaries should be tied to customer […]

Cashing In on Smarts

An Excel spreadsheet. A pad of paper and a Bic pen. And a total of seven—count em, seven—disconnected systems containing training information. Is this any way to keep track of employees course registrations and transcripts and do everything else that it takes to run a training program for 30,000 worldwide employees, partners and customers? No. […]

IT Workers Edgy About Workplace Security

Even though IT workers dont think employers do enough to ensure their personal safety or workplace security, they spurn any security measures that might cramp their personal lives, such as frequently changing computer passwords. Thats according to a recent survey of 888 U.S. technology professionals released late last month from IT jobs site Techies.com, based […]

Self-service HR Web Apps: Wheres the Beef?

While it may seem to make sense that putting human resource services online in the form of self-service applications will translate into more efficient and effective HR services, less than half of 200 companies surveyed can actually report seeing reductions in HR spending, according to a new study from Towers Perrin, a management and HR […]

Cutting the Fat From CRM Implementation

When Marshall Andrew eyeballed multimillion-dollar price tags for CRM implementation two years ago, one thing occurred to the vice president of IT at Station Casinos Inc.: Youd need a lot of slot machines to pay for that. So Andrew decided to take a healthy bite out of the bloated customer relationship management price tags he […]

Senior IT Salaries Fall With Economy

For the first time in 17 years, the benchmark salary paid to senior IT executives has shrunk, showing that the same people hailed in the days of the New Economy are now being pummeled by the recession. That was one finding of the January 2002 Salary Survey released today by Janco Associates Inc., a Park […]

Plans for Automotive Web, E-mail Stall

New car buyers can get zero percent financing, but they shouldnt expect e-mail or dashboard-delivered stock quotes in their new vehicles anytime in the near future, according to a new, global study of 103 executives at automotive manufacturers and suppliers conducted by KPMG LLP, in Detroit. Of the executives surveyed, 71 percent said that the […]

A (Dim) Light at End of Tunnel for IT Job Losses

After the worst year for job cuts since at least 1993, theres finally a light—albeit dim—at the end of the tunnel, according to a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an outplacement company. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks the number of announced layoffs by U.S. companies, said the number for 2001 was 1,956,876 […]