Electical Contractor

Could the shortage of skilled workers in electrical construction, voice/data/video (VDV) and integrated building systems (IBS) hit sooner than you think? As reported in the June and August issues of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, a shortage seems virtually certain for 2008-2010.

When Prof. Samuel B. Morse tapped out that first coded message on the key of the new telegraph machine, no one could have predicted where it would take us.

We had to transpose an entire airport runway in downtown Cleveland into a track for a night race,” said Gary Laidman, vice president of Doan/Pyramid Electric Company, of Bedford Heights, Ohio. “And there was no overhead lighting.

Call centers have come full circle, mainly because they have helped to redefine and reshape customer service functions for a wide variety of businesses. Due to competition within almost all market sectors, customer service has become a defining business function.

Electrical contractors who perform utility work have been burying electrical cable for years.

There’s going to be a skilled worker shortage later in this decade. If the economy continues to rebound, shortages might well become severe. What is being done? What might be done? If there are solutions, when will they kick in? This is the second-part of a series looking at the projected problem.

Advances in small-scale generation technology coupled with growing environmental concerns, a changing energy market, evolving public policy and customer need for reliable and economical electric power supplies will provide a new growth market for electrical contractors.

Paperless communication reduces errors Translation is a huge problem for e-business. Can your accounting system “talk” to your distributor’s business system, and vice versa? After all, your system has information the distributor needs; and you could use data in the distributor’s computer.

Company tailors service model for each customer Creating a company culture where the mantra is “Nothing’s Impossible” takes the buy-in of every worker, top-to-bottom. That’s what Shepherd Electric Supply, with two branches in the Washington, D.C.