Resource Library

Whether you are operating a home system, overseeing a small startup, or performing security governance for an enterprise, everyone can benefit from paying attention to security. This white paper provides a list of 10 security tools and tests that will help you check out suspicious issues and keep ahead of new risks and threats.

Let's look at 10 ways the cloud will change (and to a large degree already has changed) the world.

No matter which IT field you're working in, there are several skills that are useful for every IT professional to know. Here, seven experienced IT professionals working in the networking, programming, project management, and security fields, share what they believe a...

Follow these four troubleshooting tips to help you work through a challenging repair and reach a solution without much wasted time and resources.

This article addresses non-technical skills you need to do to be a success in IT.

Aside from plenty of laughs, “Groundhog Day” delivers powerful messages about change, love and being a good person. Phil is unable to break the time loop until he totally changes who he is. Unless you’re as selfish and heartless as Phil, by making incremental changes over time you’ll bring success to your life and career.

When a decision matters, there are certain steps you will want to follow. In this white paper, we provide guidelines for approaching decisions. The steps in this white paper are a series of interconnected techniques used in problem analysis and decision making.

Learn the ITIL® concepts of accountability, boundaries, and consistency (the ABCs) and discover how ITIL helps establish, manage, and maintain the ABCs.

Businesses today are more dependent on technology than ever. And, more than ever, they're looking to IT for ways to improve employee productivity, customer service and innovation. The challenge is that in order to achieve results with technology, IT and the business have to work collaboratively. IT needs to be able to develop the right relationships and communicate with different stakeholders from a business perspective - not a technical one. As a result, the transformation of the IT department has become a top-level priority for many leading organizations. At the same time, business leaders need to strengthen their business technology IQ and play a more significant role in the governance of IT.

The Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report is a window into the inner workings of IT departments, revealing insights and opinions held by professionals around the world. For 10 years, we have surveyed over 120,000 men and women in IT about the state of the industry. With a decade of data at our fingertips, we analyzed 10 years’ worth of reports and noticed four major trending areas: certifications, salaries, cloud computing and cybersecurity. 

If you’ve been wondering what are some good IT pranks for April Fools’ Day—or any other time of the year—this is the post for you. Whether you’re an IT pro with decades of experience or a noob who is about to learn that holding CTRL+SHIFT+ESC is a faster way to access the task manager (you’re welcome), we have an IT prank for you.

ITIL® 4 Foundation Bridge is a new Global Knowledge course that addresses the specific needs of professionals who have already achieved the ITIL v3 Foundation certification and wish to upgrade to ITIL 4. 

IT organizations are increasingly being held accountable to bring digital value to the business and participate as a strategic partner. To this end, IT organizations must ensure they have the right skills at the right time to support the strategic direction of the business and contribute overall ROI. Deploying an IT skills framework provides an opportunity for IT organizations to determine their level of readiness by identifying where skill gaps exist.

A quick 30 minute introduction to Business Analysis for those who are considering the field. This webinar looks at why the BA is essential to the business, what BAs do, and certification paths for Business Analysts. View the slide deck>

Business processes are complicated, and mapping them is not a trivial task. Modelling standards give us the tools to model complex processes, but they do not tell us the best way to approach a model or effectively use the tool. In this hour-long webinar, Global Knowledge instructor Rod Fage will guide you through the best way to develop a model, from determining the goal and scope of the process and measuring its effectiveness, to modelling the process in a hierarchical top-down approach, enabling business analyst to continuously validate the model.

Change is no longer an isolated event. In the digital world, professional and personal change is constant. It is the new normal. Today's leaders and teams are asked to handle relentless upheavals, while still being expected to deliver on their short-term goals. To succeed, they must toggle between the often-conflicting priorities of today's profits and tomorrow's growth. Organizational change management has been documented and many approaches exist; the same can be said for personal change. But rarely have organizations holistically thought about how these two drivers of positive change can collectively enable ongoing success. Join Jocelyn Bérard, Global Knowledge Vice President, International Leadership and Business Solutions, and Phil Buckley, Managing Director at Change with Confidence, for this informative hour-long webinar to learn a powerful and practical framework to help you manage organizational and personal change.

The change we have been talking about for years is here: IT Departments are being torn apart and reassembled in new and interesting ways, as one by one companies make their move to the Cloud. As predicted, IT Pros are being asked to take on new and different roles and to be more involved in the business. In this session, we will look at some of these new roles; what’s working, what’s failing, who is succeeding and who has been left behind. Being an IT professional today is exciting as it is scary. There is lots of opportunity; but so many gaps to fall into. It is time to take inventory and ask yourself: are you well positioned to succeed? Related: Ten IT Skills on the Brink of Extinction

What quality did the most influential leaders throughout history, such as Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher, all have in common? They were some of the greatest orators the world has ever known. Their communication skills were the tools with which they built up nations with strong foundations. They taught us that the most fundamental factor of success is without a doubt communication, and that strong communication is the pathway to strong leadership. Here you will find a breakdown of what makes an effective communicator and how you too can develop your leadership skills through communication.

Structuring techniques are the foundation of decision making. They are to decision making what blueprints are to construction. There are a number of techniques that will quickly and easily improve the analysis of virtually any problem. This paper introduces some of the simplest and most effective structuring techniques including sorting, sequencing, placement, decision trees, and ranking.  

Every business needs to have a consultative approach that increases organizational buy-in, enhances client relationships and improves customer service. Applying consulting skills can mean greater success for individuals and organizations alike. In this one-hour webinar, Michelle Moore will provide an overview of the Consulting Skills Lifecycle and present practical ideas from our McMaster Certified Consulting Skills Program. You'll learn how to engage your clients, gather and analyze information, present findings and recommendations, plan and implement recommendations and conclude the engagement and evaluate results.

Leadership is evolving beyond traditional leadership skills, and it has never been so important. In an era of constant change, digital disruption, increased employee expectations and rising business complexity, today’s leaders require more than the fundamentals.  In years past, leadership development focused on helping leaders set performance expectations, communicate effectively, provide feedback, coach and motivate their employees. While these skills remain important, they are no longer sufficient to meet the business requirements of the 21st century. Leaders now require skills and competencies to ensure that they also build highly productive teams, accelerate organizational results and transform customer experiences in a fast-paced, highly competitive and global working environment. In this hour-long webinar, leadership consultant Kim Caughlin will reveal and discuss the new high-demand skills and competencies required to lead effectively in the 21st century. 

Business is changing rapidly and Information Technology is at the centre of the trends: mobile, social, cloud and big data,. Forward thinking IT functions must develop and manage the skills of their most critical asset-- their employees. Effective professional development can guard against the pace of change, leading IT units to re-define job roles to include both technical and non-technical competencies and to establish business processes to help their staff develop and maintain these skills. This session will present the components of a holistic process to support learning and development in any IT organization.

Cloud computing enables development teams to get applications into production faster. IT Service Management (ITSM) leaders must adopt new strategies and change existing processes or risk becoming a barrier to success. Cloud computing requires DevOps-the blending of development and operations with the goal of accelerating time-to-market and reducing time-to-value. The good news is that ITIL® is uniquely positioned to accelerate DevOps, but it requires changes to existing ITSM processes.

If you're responsible for creating marketing content and the demand for fresh content is stressing you out, help has arrived. In this hour-long webinar, award-winning content creator Gail Mercer-MacKay will show you how to easily create new content that will attract prospects even if you're short on time and budget. You will learn how basic building blocks, such as blogs, social media and newsletters, support each other and can be reused multiple times. By producing fresh content, leveraging the content of others and broadcasting through various mechanisms to drive awareness, followers, likes and leads, you can obtain your desired results by investing only seven to 10 hours a month.

With the onset of the Digital Age, IT professionals today are hit with a tsunami of changes! "By 2018, adoption of mobile, social, cloud, analytics will redefine 90% of IT roles" according to IDC 2014 Predictions: CIO Agenda. Large organizations are eliminating silos. Small and medium organizations are outsourcing technology services. Digital natives have entered the workforce. New roles will emerge as new ways of doing business are introduced and as old technology fades away. Today's IT professionals must adapt, and a new set of skills is in order. Join Pranav Shah, Manager of Information Technology and Security at Sony Canada, and Pam Maguire, Business Development Manager, Global Knowledge, for a 60 minute webinar on how to future-proof your IT career in the Digital Age. You will learn about how IT roles are changing, what organizations are looking for, and what you can do now to be ready.

Technology in the digital age is disrupting everything in our lives and our workplace -- and it's impacting all aspects of the "People, Process and Technology" paradigm. Changes for IT professionals, project managers and business analysts are profound and are happening at lightning speed - faster than we've ever seen before. Individuals and organizations must keep pace or get left behind. Never fear. Along with the danger of quickly finding yourself on the sidelines are opportunities for tremendous career growth. Join us for this one-hour session on career management in the digital age. You will learn about the forces that are impacting business, how skills are evolving, which new skills will emerge and what you can do to adapt and succeed in the digital age.

Nasser El-Batal will walk you through the most useful, recognized, and mandated ITSM best practices in the industry: TOGAF, COBIT and ITIL®. He will highlight the benefits of integrating them into a single implementation program to avoid project disaster. Discussions are focused on "Getting Your House in Order" and how to establish your own organization-specific business transformation program, while increasing your organization maturity.

You will learn how many organizations approach change management as compared to how best practices dictate that change management should work. Global Knowledge instructor and ITIL Expert Michael Scarborough will fill you in on the purpose of change management and the difference between change management and change tickets. He will provide a high-level guide for establishing a change management process that uses real-world examples as its basis.

How can leaders and Human Resources professionals use effective, simple and research-based talent management practices to contribute to their organization's success? Too many leadership development theories provide complex and confusing answers. Join Jocelyn Bérard as he shares the core practices introduced in his new book, Accelerating Leadership Development, which reflects his extensive research and years of experience in making leadership development uncomplicated and practical.

This certification and exam guide discusses the various ITIL® certifications and what they might mean to you, your organization, and your career, as well as provide important test-taking tips for the ITIL certification exams. ITIL certifications help individuals validate their ability to demonstrate skills from a foundational to a mastery level of IT service management. ITIL certification can often be a key differentiator in the marketplace as well.

Every manager wants to get the most out of every employee and maximize team cohesion and efficiency. Making your team members feel as if they are being heard, understood, and acknowledged is critical to any management strategy. Actively listening to team members’ thoughts, ideas, and challenges drives employee engagement and satisfaction, which drives better results. View the slide deck>>

It’s inevitable. At some point in your career, you’ll find yourself working alongside individuals who fall into the general category of “Difficult People.” The effects these people can have on an organization vary greatly but usually involve many problems for the team. This white paper describes some of the more common types of difficult people and provides you with tips on how to handle them.

When designing a structured business analyst interview, it’s crucial to have a goal in mind, a clear set of questions planned, and an understanding of how those questions may deviate from the intended goal. An interview has an intended line of questioning; it may also have alternate lines of questioning and unanticipated paths where the interviewee has raised issues or answered questions in a way the business analyst had not considered or planned. In short, an interview is a social process.

Measurements and metrics provide a view into every aspect of an organization. From resource availability to necessary improvements, measurements are the key to successfully understanding how your organization is performing. This paper will give you guidance on why measuring is important, how to get started, what types of metrics are available, what should be measured, and how to go about initiating improvements.

Answer the questions posed in our ITIL Decision Tree to see if you should pursue ITIL 4. It’s easy-to-follow and no matter how you answer, it will provide a distinct next step for your ITIL journey.

Often we let personal biases and other intuitive mental forces push us towards quick decisions. In contrast, good decision makers make the effort to really analyze issues. Instead learn how to become a critical thinker by separating facts from assumptions to make consistent, high-quality decisions.

Learn how to boost your visibility on LinkedIn by listing your skills and certifications and leveraging the courses you’ve taken for professional development. This is especially important to catch the eyes of recruiters and when applying for jobs.

In this hour-long webinar by Global Knowledge instructor and ITIL Expert Michael Scarborough, you will learn how to study for and succeed in passing ITIL Intermediate Exams. You will learn how to approach an ITIL Intermediate exam, the true/false approach and why it works and how to study for the ITIL Intermediate exams.

The profusion of email we receive every day is often blamed as our biggest productivity thief. Learn how Microsoft Outlook can help you manage not only your inbox, but your entire day. Watch this webinar and learn: Automating tasks Creating rules to manage your inbox Conditional Formatting Other tips and tricks to help you take control of your day Stop letting email manage your day and learn to take control with Microsoft Outlook. Take your first step and watch this webinar today! Outlook Training to Grow your Skills View our complete curriculum of 1-day hands-on Outlook courses on versions 2010, 2013 and 2016. Learn to benefit from all that Outlook can offer with our introductory and advanced level courses.

Negotiation is a dialogue intended to resolve disputes, to produce an agreement on courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, or to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. It is the primary method of alternative dispute resolution. This white paper focuses primarily on the negotiation process, different negotiation styles, and the various elements of communication that affect the outcome, including: Negotiation Communications, Constructive Questioning, Communication Obstacles (and overcoming those obstacles), Challenging Negotiation Situations and "Traps," and, finally, completing Successful Negotiations, a.k.a. "Getting to Yes"