Interim Consulting Demand

Interim Consulting Demand

by | 9 Sep 2019 | Consulting

IT contractor demand at highest point for over a year

IT Consulting and Interim management skills are at the highest demand in more than a year now that post Brexit has kicked off.

Demand for freelance IT contractors rose to a 14-month high in March 2017, according to the REC national index. The demand has been fuelled by several factors, including a lengthy list of IT skills that appear to be in increasingly short supply within the salaried permanent workforce. Brexit uncertainty could also be working in freelancers’ favour as employers are more likely to engage freelancers for IT contract jobs on a limited timeframe rather than the lengthier commitment of hiring new permanent staff. Additionally, those already working in permanent positions could be unwilling to take a chance on jumping ship in such uncertain waters.

REC chief executive Kevin Green said: “Economic uncertainty about future prospects is having a detrimental effect on employees’ willingness to risk a career move at this time. “Many [employers] are [therefore] reporting an increasing number of white collar jobs as hard to fill, including within the IT and the financial sectors.”

[REC = Recruitment & Employment Confederation]

Contractors and those who are willing to change employers are reportedly reaping dividends as skills on the scarcer side are attracting premiums in the current climate. The skills most in demand can vary from one month or even one week to the next however, so when you actually secure a contract can have a major bearing on whether you also manage to secure premium rates.

Digital generalists, UX/UI experts, and those with experience in the gaming field were particularly scarce in February for example. In March a variety of different IT skills were at a premium, including Java developers, Dev Ops, IT security, software developers, software and embedded software engineers, Ruby software developers, and PHP software developers.

The REC said: “Our concern is that Brexit will make the problem worse, particularly if onerous restrictions are imposed on people coming from the EU to work.”

It is a problem for employers, but for IT contractors a lack of skills in the general workforce means more opportunities.
“Experience and knowledge/exposure to Business Transformation related programmes are on the increase too,” stated Craig Ashmole, Founding Director of Interim IT consulting firm CCServe Ltd. “There are some high profile programmes in the City of London that have increased over the last 12 months driving PMO or Portfolio Management”.

Source: Consulting Hub

Having spent a majority of my career working with and supporting the Corporate CIO Function, I now seek to provide a forum whereby CIOs or IT Directors can learn from the experience of others to address burning Change or Transformation challenges.

Craig Ashmole

Founding Director CCServe

Global Employers choose consultants

Global Employers choose consultants

by | 3 Sep 2016 | Consulting

Over 70% of global employers now use contractors to help fill IT skills shortages

A new report found that 40% of US businesses now have a hybrid workforce of permanent and contract IT employees to fill talent shortages and fast-changing technical skill needs.

If you’re running a company in the US, there’s a good chance your next IT hire will not be a permanent member of the team. A new report from Experis found that 40% of US companies now have a hybrid workforce of permanent, freelance, and contract employees — the highest percentage of hybrid workers globally.

Hiring IT contractors has become more popular worldwide, with 71% of employers across ten countries currently using contract talent — likely due in part to increased shortages in skilled IT workers. In the US, just 41% of companies rely solely on permanent IT staff.

“Faced with talent shortages and fast-changing skills needs, companies are getting more sophisticated when it comes to workforce solutions, particularly in IT,” said Sean Costello, senior vice president of Experis, North America. “Having been through the cost-cutting of the recession, many are now re-evaluating and reengineering their workforce.”

Rather than sticking with business-as-usual, companies are recognising the need for more customised sourcing strategies, Costello said. Contractors can offer more efficiency and flexibility for companies working on tight deadline projects and innovative new ideas that require technical skills that are not found in-house, he added.

Companies in each of the 10 nations surveyed varied greatly in in-country IT hiring practices. Not surprising the countries with the highest numbers of permanent employees were:-

  • Germany (63% permanent)
  • India (62% permanent)
  • Australia (58% permanent)

When it comes to hiring IT talent overseas, employers preferred using a mix of contractors, freelancers, and permanent workers, more so than at home, the report found. Companies don’t usually have the same level of legacy infrastructure overseas as in their home market, Costello said. Many find that working with contractors or buying staffing solutions through partnership arrangements offers a fast, efficient way to ramp-up operations overseas.

Hiring contractors

One in 5 US employers plans to increase their use of IT contractors, the report found.

“Having been in the Interim contracting space for a number of years I see how the contractor model appeals to many people, particularly in the IT space,” states Craig Ashmole, founding Director of London based consulting CCServe. “They are looking for greater flexibility and variety in the work they do. These IT roles tend to attract self-motivated individuals who prioritise on-going skills development and like to see rapid results delivered.”

Companies hired contractors most often for development solutions and infrastructure service, the report found — two areas in which the technical requirements shift rapidly and require the most up-to-date skills. If a legacy workforce falls behind the curve, organisations often look to contractors to bring the added technical know-how to get the job done.

Contract work is appealing to companies because of its flexibility, the report found. “With tighter margins and tougher competition, all organisations are looking for ways to be nimbler and shift more easily as markets change,” Costello said. “Contract work offers the ability to quickly ramp-up and test-drive projects without the same level of risk. It is tailor-made for innovation in this period when companies are still a little cautious after the recession.”

These workers can also be more cost-effective: When a project has a fixed timeframe, it is often easier to find contractors that can fill an immediate need, rather than finding and training a permanent employee. Contractors can also be a way to tap underused talent, including minorities, women, and older workers, Costello said.

By implementing a diverse workforce strategy, blending permanent and contingent workers, companies are finding ways to be both more agile and cost-competitive, It’s a new way of thinking about workforce management.

The 3 big takeaways

  1. Use of contract workers is increasing worldwide, with 71% of employers across ten countries currently using contract talent, according to a new report on IT workforce trends from Experis.
  2. Contractors can offer more efficiency and flexibility for companies working on tight-deadline projects and innovative new ideas that require advanced technical skills.
  3. Some 40% of US businesses now feature a hybrid workforce of permanent, contract, and freelance employees, representing the largest such workforce globally.

Companies hired contractors most often for development solutions and infrastructure service, a report from Experis has found — two areas in which the technical requirements shift rapidly and require the most up-to-date skills. If a legacy workforce falls behind the curve, organisations often look to contractors to bring the added technical know-how to get the job done.

Craig Ashmole

Founding Director CCServe

Business Changing IT Spend

Business Changing IT Spend

by | 2 Feb 2016 | Technology

How business outcomes are transforming IT spending

According to a recently released study by Datalink and IDG, business is playing a bigger role than ever in IT spending.

The relationship between business leaders and IT is equal parts necessary and contentious. More and more, though, decisions made on the business side are having an even greater impact on IT.

International Data Group IDG has just released the results of a study commissioned by Datalink, which showed just how closely linked IT investments are becoming with business results. The study polled more than 100 IT executives and senior level managers from large U.S. organisations and took place in Q4 2015.

When asked where they wanted to invest their IT dollars currently, respondents listed the following areas as their top five considerations:

  1. Improving of IT security – 70%
  2. Improving customer/client experiences – 59%
  3. Managing costs – 59%
  4. Boosting operational efficiency – 52%
  5. Mitigating risk – 44%

However, what may be more interesting is not where these organisations are making their investments in IT, but when. According to the report, 70% of respondents said it’s critical that they’re able to link IT investments to tangible business outcomes.

So, if an understanding of IT’s impact is this important, do these organisations feel that they are communicating that clearly enough? Well…not necessarily. Only 47% said that their organisations are doing an excellent or very good job at communicating how a particular IT investment impacted a business outcome. The remaining 53% said their organisation needs a least some, if not significant, improvement in doing so.

Not only did respondents say that identifying the impact on the business was important, but 68% of them said that, when making an IT investment decision, the business goals were more important than any of IT’s operational goals.

Since business is this important a consideration in each IT investment, let’s take a look at what the top running initiatives are, so far, among respondents. Here are the top five:

  1. Security
  2. Disaster recovery/business continuity
  3. IT governance/compliance management
  4. Cloud/virtualisation management
  5. Public cloud (including SaaS)

Of the projects currently in the build stage, the top three were agile development platforms, converged data center infrastructure, and process automation.

This, of course, begs the question of which IT initiatives are actually driving business outcomes. According to the report, process automation got top marks, and security, application performance management, and cloud/virtualisation management all got a nod as well. Although, all four of these were listed as the most difficult to deploy and maintain.

The IT lifecycle as a whole has its challenges, though. In building out an initiative, 41% said the planning stage was the most difficult, 36% claimed the building stage was the hardest, and 32% labeled testing the most challenging.

As businesses seek to tie in business success to IT investment, a few distinct roadblocks come up. Here is how respondents labeled the top five challenges in driving business outcomes through IT investments.

  1. Difficulty standardising/streamlining business processes – 34%
  2. Too many manual processes (need for more automation) – 33%
  3. Difficulty keeping up with demand for new application dev – 31%
  4. Poor communication between IT and lines of business – 29%
  5. Lack of support/sponsorship from executive management – 29%

Moving forward, as more of these leaders seek to connect the dots between their IT investments and how their business fares, most (56%) are looking to streamline the operational processes to make it more apparent. Others are increasing standardisation (38%) or moving away from legacy systems (37%) to accomplish the same.

Having spent a majority of my career working with and supporting the Corporate CIO Function, I now seek to provide a forum whereby CIOs or IT Directors can learn from the experience of others to address burning Change or Transformation challenges.

Craig Ashmole

Founding Director CCServe