Gartner: CIOs will struggle to retain and attract IT talent | Computer Weekly
Summary
In spite of this revised expectation, Gartner’s forecast shows that enterprise IT spending is set to remain strong. During strong trading conditions, every business invests in IT, but as economic conditions worsen, when times get tough, Lovelock said: “You tend to spend on things that you feel bring real value, and this is where enterprises start splitting between those that really value IT and see it as something that drives revenue and prosperity, and those that see it as driving costs.” While the banking crisis and 2009 recession led to organisations moving to the cloud to save money, Lovelock said that this time round the cloud was becoming more expensive, driven by inflation and energy price hikes. This issue of IT being a cost centre plays out in the skills market, when CIOs need to compete on wages to attract the best talent. Skilled IT workers are migrating away from the enterprise CIO towards technology and service providers (TSPs) who can keep up with increased wage requirements, development opportunities and career prospects.” As a consequence, Gartner expects the IT services market to grow, as companies look to bring in outside IT staff for implementation and support. Lovelock believes this will lead to IT departments having to focus their attention on managing IT suppliers rather than developing core technology competencies in-house.