It hasn’t been an easy time for IT professionals over the last few years. Numerous debates have arisen in the industry that there exists a general lack of skills and practical knowledge within the emerging industry which is jeopardising the UK’s already tentative status as a global economic leader. With the recent recession many London IT Support groups, particularly those who had not diversified sufficiently or relied on outdated services, suffered considerably as cost cutting became the overriding priority of many firms.
This downturn has been compounded by a recent boom in the interest of new technologies such as cloud computing which has had many IT professionals questioning their futures. The outsourcing of traditional in house IT services to cloud-based support, SaaS or to a lower cost foreign competitor who take care of system administration, programming, help desk support and testing is threatening to render many in house teams obsolete.
Pay-cuts, limited career opportunities and the withdrawal of vital training schemes by companies have been cited by many individuals associated with the industry as primary factors in the stagnation of the UK professional. So what is the solution, in a recent ComputerWeekly user questionnaire a majority of those who answered agreed that a fair playing field with offshore workers with UK contracts was essential to the survival of indigenous IT services.
As developing nations expand and grow it is inevitable that costs will eventually rise, so for the UK based IT professional I think that until a more ‘level playing field’ is achieved the key in my opinion is to make yourself more valuable to the company you work for. The best way to overcome a problem is by understanding it and remaining resolute; it is not good enough for IT teams to offer a service that will solely cut costs anymore or soon they may find that the simplest cost cutting exercise is to outsource their operation. Professionals need a thorough understanding of traditional and basic IT is crucial as well the flexibility to embrace new technologies. They should not simply concentrate on cost cutting, but value creation, forging a close working relationship with non-IT related colleagues such as marketing, finance or sales and embrace and manipulate new technologies including cloud computing, SaaS, Social Media and portable IT devices including smart phones and tablets. Fast and effective system delivery allows us to explore new markets and new opportunities, something that is central to the evolution of the IT industry.