Category: Blogs

How your IT purchasing strategy can bridge the great technology

The biggest challenge businesses now face is bridging the gap between technology and users, changing who holds the power in making technology purchasing decisions

At the end of 2012 many predictions for the coming year in technology foretold that IT and business technology decision making would be decentralised away from IT departments.

Instead it would be driven by other influencers within the organisation: from HR and finance teams to employees and marketing departments, technological innovation would start to flow into IT rather than out from it.

Fast forward three years and that prophecy has yet to materialise and IT still sits at the heart of technology deployments within an organisation, still the listening ear of the business needs and still the deliverer of new innovation.

Indeed, research CCS Media conducted earlier this year showed that in more than 90% of organisations IT directors were the top influencer both in terms of developing IT strategy and technology purchasing decisions. The executive board, Operations Director and Finance departments all came in the top five, yet IT remained the most influential.

Change is afoot

This can largely be attributed to the shift that IT teams in forward-thinking organisations have made in how they approach technology deployments. Rather than locking down to technology and prescribing solutions for users, these IT teams have accepted that people will always find a way to use the technology that is best suited to enabling them to do their job.

And in response, they have adjusted the process of how they build and deploy solutions, listening to the requirements of the business and enabling the solutions that are desired and required to be deployed.

As a result, what is now starting to happen is that organisations are increasingly focusing their technology deployments based on what it delivers in terms of productivity and efficiency, and ensuring it acts as both a business enabler and driver of innovation.

Research from CCS Media showed that among businesses’ top priorities for IT spend in the coming year, innovation (43%), enhanced customer experience (37%), big data (27%) and enabling a flexible workforce (25%) were high on organisations wish lists.

By implementing technology to address these requirements, organisations hope to achieve faster business growth (56%), better collaboration across the business (54%), improved customer service (52%) and a more empowered workforce (50%).

Emerging from the shadows

The cause of much of this change has been the emergence of ‘shadow IT’, such as mobile devices, applications and other ‘consumer’ technology, and IT starting to embrace it as part and parcel of the modern business, creating an IT eco-system of people-centric technology.

Whereas previously employees used innovation and technology – such as cloud storage services and applications – secretively and on the periphery of the business to improve how they work, it is now integral to most organisations’ IT strategy.

This shift to people-centric technology offers organisations a range of opportunities to drive greater innovation, but in order to do so  IT departments must re-prioritise tech deployments, understanding that their people – employees, customers and partners – and their needs must come first, and that the technology serving those needs comes second.  

This really underlines that what was widely predicted to be the decentralisation of IT has instead emerged as the consumerisation of IT, with IT departments having the opportunity to lead the charge for technological change and business innovation.

Bridging the gap

IT teams are now expected to ensure collaboration between complex infrastructures and the technology that simplifies user experiences, boosts productivity and improves the customer experience, ensuring that all components integrate seamlessly to innovate practices across the business.

But, as IT departments know, this is easier said than done. It involves a lot of complexities, especially when managing multiple stakeholders.

The technology first, user second approach, where infrastructures were clearly defined with a single type of device, one operating system and work applications hosted within company walls was relatively simple compared to the complexities that are created by the current need for ‘user first, people centric’ IT.

Delivering technology that is defined by an individual’s preferences, the data that people have access to, what devices they’re able to access that information from, and the extent to which they’re allowed to interact with that information, may deliver a simple experience but deploying it is highly complex.

In a modern business, IT teams must now bridge the gap between existing infrastructures, the technology that is desired and the skills and expectations of the employee. In our experience how organisations address these gaps is critical to the success of technology in delivering the innovation that they seek.

To be successful IT teams must identify the pain points of the end-user, breaking down their requirements on a department by department and user-by-user basis before developing a strategy to pull everything together into a unified IT infrastructure.

The strategies that are most flexible and adaptable to the rapidly changing requirements of employees and the emergence of new technology have a greater success rate both in realising greater innovation and productivity.

As Steve Jobs said in 1997 'one of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards for the technology'. 

It may have taken nearly two decades for this to trickle down into the business environment but it now rings true: to achieve the best possible performance organisations must have a mix of great people and great technology, and only when those two elements work together do great things happen.

Those organisations that utilise their IT teams to bridge the divide between people and technology will realise the true ceiling that innovation can offer.

Source: Information Age

With robots continuing to revolutionise workplaces, what can employees do to apply and leverage their skills so they can add greater value?

'Welcome to your obsolescence,' shouts the New York Times Book Review with a picture of robots doing all the office work, except for one suited man mopping the floor. ‘Half of all jobs will be automated in the next two decades,’ insists a serious Oxford Martin School study. And Elon Musk gets credit for igniting the latest frenzy with his crafty comment about ‘summoning the demons’.

As thinking machines – narrow artificial intelligence, technically, or plain AI – work their way into every cubicle and cranny of the workplace, the volume is cranked up, the debate is blaring, ‘Is AI good or evil?’ But this may be entirely the wrong debate. It’s certainly not a productive debate. And AI is all about productivity.

At the last count, according to Bloomberg Beta's Shivon Zilis, there are at least 2,529 companies racing to develop worthwhile AI products. Google, Facebook, Amazon and Baidu are in the lead, and assuming history remains our guide, these companies won’t stay there.

Experience demonstrates that the ‘good-evil’ question is primarily a function of marketing and trending sentiment. Commercial entities are increasingly focused on AI for the future impact on the bottom line. It’s all about ROI.

Just as a previous generation made vast fortunes refining hydrocarbons, managing the delta between investor and borrower needs, and electrifying the world, today's AI leaders want to carve out the niche that will build the future’s fortunes – ‘cognifying’ the world and transforming our digital lives.

We know already that machine learning – think of this as restricted AI – is handling dozens of valuable business activities. Cutting back the energy we use in our homes (Nest). Scheduling our meetings for us (x.ai). Ridding our email of spam (Mailwise). Helping us acquire knowledge and clients quicker (Scredible). Suggesting new connections based on our career changes (LinkedIn). Instantly translating our sentences into the language of our recipients (Google). And turning stats from sports games into genuine news stories (Automated Insights).

Across every industry, there are promises on the horizon that have the potential to positively impact our productivity and our lives just as miraculously as, first the gas lamp, and then the electric light bulb, drove the productivity of the industrial revolution. 

But just as the candle makers saw their jobs snatched away, many millions of well-educated workers see their livelihoods in jeopardy today. Most of them are mistaken, but the fear is real. This begs the question: who are ‘they’?

Journalists will face dim job prospects as robots learn to write as well if not better. Waiters will be replaced, certainly tips will decline, as orders are placed over iPads set on tabletops and busboys and girls deliver and clear.

Accountants will find that software has replaced them, and that software neither miscalculates nor leaves the risk of a government audit to chance. Interpreters will sit idle, because anybody in any language can communicate across the globe, in any language, and in real-time.

Marketeers will be slammed by programmatic buying software that eliminates the judgment for which they were once valued, much as is already happening with stockbrokers and traders.

The list is endless. It impacts job categories once considered safe. No more. The hard truth is: many thousands of people will find their job position deleted, or their skillsets replicated by a computer at lower cost.

But there is a bright side. Millions of people will also find that new jobs are opening up to support, advance and manage the new AI-enabled workplace. These are different jobs, skilled jobs, functions that require new skills; skills, ironically, best defined and taught by – you guessed it – AI-driven systems.

The reality is that the ‘is AI good or evil?’ debate is the wrong debate to be having. Absent a digital meltdown or other harbinger of the oft-predicted dystopian future, technology will march on. Quantum computing will become a reality and AI will evolve. This is what technology does. What it has always done.

And, what we humans have managed to do, to a greater or lesser extent, reasonably well over the past 65,000 years is adapt. Therefore, the question that should be asked by those future-focused folk, indeed the central question of our time, is: how do I align my skills with the AI-enabled economy?

This is the real question – itself best answered by considering two further questions: how do I fill my knowledge gaps to remain relevant? And how do I best prepare for the jobs of the future?

For all the jobs being displaced, new, and in many cases more fulfilling, jobs and career tracks are in constant creation. The most obvious realm is data. We're swimming in so much of it – 2.5 quintillion more bytes a day, says IBM – that today's data analysts will be unable to keep pace.

Indeed, McKinsey predicts that by 2018 there will be a shortage of data analysts. This field is not for everyone, but it should be great for analytical-minded professionals. But who are they?

Our broken and outdated education system has proven unequal to the task of identifying individual talent and ability. First we need to apply AI to fix this system. Naturally, data analysts are just an example, the tip of the iceberg.

It is going to require new knowledge that enables individuals to become valued and valuable assets moving forward. To meet the need, professionals in the workplace will have to fill knowledge gaps created by the pace of change. Fortunately there are companies working on apps, programs, and training designed to broaden our understanding and narrow the gap.

Currently, over 171 universities in 26 countries are offering advanced degrees in AI to prepare the next generation for these as yet undefined, or ill-defined opportunities. This is just the start. Everyone with an internet connection can have access to a personal AI that works for us around the clock, affordably and efficiently.

In fact, transformative and disruptive AI-enabled apps are evolving to meet the future’s promise, transporting us from a reliance on the old educational institutions to future-ready training programs that give us just what we need to know, when we need to know it.

This is the future. Good or evil is no more part of the picture than the concept was for earlier innovations such as fire and the wheel. This is the future, and we must be prepared to embrace it.

Original Source: Information age

Read more over at Cyber Insights, brought to you by the National Cyber Skills Centre 

Certes specialise in IT staffing for all sectors and industries. We are now working with the National Cyber Skills Centre in order to provide staffing to companies in need of cyber security. For cyber security jobs Click here.

While governments can tackle the bigger issue of the IT skills shortage, enterprise can nurture tech talent in the short term by taking IT skills training mobile.

The UK has gained a reputation for being at the forefront of innovation thanks to exciting developments spawned from TechNorth, Silicon Fen and various other tech clusters up and down the country.

For the UK to remain such a major player, the development of digital and technology skills needs to be a priority to ensure we can maintain a pipeline of talent and innovative home-grown technology businesses.

With this in mind it is good to hear the popularity of STEM career paths is on the rise. However, it’s lagging behind the rate of global growth in this area. For example, the EU Commission reports that by 2020 the continent will have a shortfall of 900,000 much needed IT professionals.

Putting this in perspective, this is the same figure as the population of Stockholm.

Starved skills supply

While the government works to solve this problem through vocational paths, labour market regulation, apprenticeships and education policy, the solutions proposed are long term and fail to address the immediate demand for skilled IT workers.

For example, Tech City’s Tech Nation report highlighted that one million digital technology roles were advertised last year alone. The skills gap is an immediate problem both to the industry and overall economic growth.

A skills gap and a high demand for tech talent has also resulted in professionals being in the position where they can choose to work as contractors for hugely inflated salaries.

While this might seem advantageous, this has the potential for long-term and negative consequences for the industry. This is especially true for fledgling start-ups that may lack the funding necessary to attract the digital talent to drive their ideas forward. 

Where this leaves the CIO

Upskilling existing employees is often a neglected avenue. However, the old methods of upskilling are not necessarily the best for today’s developers and IT professionals.

The YouTube generation craves immediacy and wants access to information so they can resolve work-related problems when they need it, whether on the job or on the move. They certainly won’t wait for a scheduled classroom training course.

We know how time-consuming it can be to take people out of action for several days, and the disruption this can create. Pluralsight's research has found that more than 70% of Pluralsight users in businesses learn outside of working hours; there is high demand to develop skills outside of the working day.

An accessible approach to learning

The reality is that forward-thinking companies are making a fundamental shift in the way they offer learning to their IT departments. With more than 93% of companies now using online learning courses of some description, it’s clear that a different style of learning, more focused on real-time problem solving rather than traditional classroom training is already taking an increasingly important role in the tech sector.

However, not all online learning solutions are created equal, and businesses need to think carefully about what their developer and IT talent wants. Developers want to learn from the people who are pushing the boundaries of application design and try new coding languages as soon as they emerge.

Forward thinking organisations are embracing this notion by empowering staff to select the training that’s right for them, and this leads to greater relevancy and higher engagement for the trainee.

For instance, Pluralsight’s Authors are gurus and innovators in their own right – and their reputation and expertise appeal directly to today’s discerning IT professional. 

On-demand learning allows you to address all of these requirements by giving employees control over their own learning. Today’s workforce want their information in a searchable format of their choice so they can digest a short burst of training to upskill rapidly – and on a device of their choosing. 

It gives them the ability to apply their learning immediately, adding context to their understanding. Significantly, learning retention is proven to increase productivity by 14% due to higher levels of engagement and improved time to competency when learning becomes available at the point of need. This means that businesses can deliver their services around 26% faster, just by altering their accessibility to training.

IT talent needs to constantly refresh and improve their skills to maintain their relevancy. This also creates a culture of continuous learning, motivating your talent to constantly challenge themselves and learn outside of their current skillset.

What was gospel two years ago is now demoted in favour of new frameworks. In 2012, our most popular courses were dominated by ASP.net – nowadays it’s Angular JS and C#.

By providing a 360° learning experience through skills assessment, focused training, re-assessment of newly acquired skills, combined with practical exercises, online mentoring and discussion forums, your employees will significantly improve their productivity and effectiveness.

Crucially, it will enable you to build a pipeline of skills long term, helping you evolve your talent in line with market changes. This type of responsive learning will ensure your talent remains agile and innovative so it can evolve alongside the business’ strategy in the long term, not just stemming short-term skills gaps.

Source: Information Age

Source: Raconteur

So you can get the best out of using social media for your job seeking it would be a good idea to know what recruiters are searching for on various social media and optimise your social media accounts give the employersthe best impression about you and the skills you possess.

Source: Recruitment Buzz

Think about your daily lives and how often you use and interact with technology. For some of us this may be the first thing that we do. Now think of all the information that you store on technology, sensitive data such as your name, address, banking details and so on. If you are like most people nowadays an extensive majority of your time will be using software that has your details stored (social media, banking, work, shopping, ect.)

The online technology space is a hive of information ripe for the taking and organisations are aware of this. The global cyber security market is growing exponentially with increases of 10% year on year with no signs of slowing down. By 2020, the cyber security market is expected to reach $170 Billion (£118 Billion).

Here are a few things to note:

• 181 cyber attacks since 2005
• 1.8 Billion records compromised from companies such as Sony to V-tech
• 2014 and 2015 saw major companies being subjected to cyber attacks

With Cloud computing now becoming a staple in IT departments enabling staff to work away from the office and consumer connectivity growing with the introduction of ‘smart’ cities, there are become more ways in which cyber attacks can gain access to sensitive data.

The latest form of these cyber attacks making the rounds is Ransomware. Ransomware is an access restriction malware that infects computers denying access to files, holding the files for ransom. With this form of Cyber attack the attacker(s) extorts money from their victims in order to release the lock.

Cyber security is a pretty serious business and companies are taking precautions to prevent attacks from happening to them. The demand is so high that experts in the cyber security field are extremely sought after and can earn up to £10,000 a day. However, talent in this area is sparse thus the reason for the attractive pay.

January 2014, HMRC conducted a full investigation into Google’s ‘tax arrangement’ as Google based their advertising sales in Ireland. Concluding the investigation, HMRC slapped Google with a £24 million backdated bill.

Besides the tax mishap on Google’s part, security concerns have been raised for HMRC and Google’s partnership. Tom Read, chief technology officer at the Cabinet Office addresses these concerns "Being a pure software-as-a-service solution delivered through a browser, Google Apps is updated with new features and bug fixes regularly without any work from the IT department. This brings commoditised continual improvement to a key set of services". David Fitton, head of public sector sales at Google UK, continues on LinkedIn: "The acceptance by HMRC that they can store official information offshore in Google data centres represents a major change and endorsement of Google's approach to managing sensitive information."

HMRC says using Google’s cloud based services has a host of benefits and “…will make it easier for staff to collaborate on internal documents, providing greater flexibility and efficiency, while reducing costs”. HMRC are also planning to implement further Google collaborations to more staff throughout the year due to a successful trial period.

HMRC did concider other options such as Microsoft 365 but the flexibiltity of Googles suited the needs of HMRC.

Although money can work as a huge deciding factor, it's not the only thing that a job seeker looks for. To attract the perfect employee an employer should be able to offer the following.

Source: SocialTalent

If you're a job seeker, what are the incentives that attract you?