Facing the IT skills shortage

Is managed services the answer you’ve been looking for?

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a reassessment of what people want in their lives and their careers. In the IT space, ‘The Great Resignation’ has just further highlighted what many people already knew – Australia has an IT skills shortage.

Businesses are finding it harder than ever to recruit and retain IT staff. Organisations like Coles Group are introducing dedicated programs to attract and re-train staff returning to technology careers after career breaks. Other organisations like Atlassian are adopting policies allowing employees to work from anywhere globally to attract the best people and overcome logistical challenges.

Border closures and a reduction in visas available to attract talent from overseas only add to the problem.

But this IT skills shortage isn’t just a result of COVID-19, border restrictions and people reassessing their life goals. Since 2015, the Australian Computer Society and Deloitte have partnered to create Australia’s Digital Pulse report. Each year, the report has found an unfilled demand for ICT workers. The 2021 report says there is a “perennial ICT skills shortage facing the nation”, with an estimated impending gap of around 60,000 extra ICT workers per annum over five years. Further, there are only about 7000 students a year graduating with IT degrees.

The demand will only increase as Australia looks to position itself as a global tech sector leader. For example, the Tech Council of Australia launched in August 2021 as a new peak body to represent the technology industry. Its goals include for the technology sector to employ one million people in Australia by 2025 and to grow the value of tech to the economy to $250 billion by 2031. Still, these goals could be challenging in the face of global demand for technology skills.

It’s no wonder businesses are struggling to recruit

With such high demand for skills, businesses can find it difficult to recruit IT staff. In addition, the shifting nature of the skills required can make it tricky for employers to find people with the right mix of qualifications and experience. As a result, it can be impossible for many small to medium-sized organisations to find people with all the skills their business needs. Like unicorns, they don’t exist.

The shift to cloud-based environments, remote working, and managing BYOD environments further challenges recruitment. Some organisations find that their in-house IT team doesn’t have the relevant experience and knowledge to keep pace with the rate of change and respond to the changing business and technical environment needs.

So, what is the answer, especially when your business can’t hire multiple people to get access to all the skills you need?

Outsourcing can help

Outsourcing your IT needs can help circumnavigate the skills shortage and keep your business’s IT requirements running smoothly. A managed services provider can streamline your IT infrastructure and operations, giving your employees access to the tools and infrastructure they need to do their job effectively.

Our managed services team can help you scale your IT services and respond to changing market conditions without needing dedicated in-house resources. In addition, as businesses continue to adapt to working-from-home and hybrid working arrangements, outsourcing helps free up headcount that is no longer required for managing in-office infrastructure.

You can take advantage of:

• Total management and monitoring of your IT infrastructure
• Centralised management and updates of office software for productivity and collaboration
• Complete management of your IT security, including firewall, anti-virus and data encryption
• Helpdesk support, with remote, onsite and flexible support options
• Regular reporting on network performance
• Predictable, transparent costs for budgeting purposes
• Pricing structures to scale your spending up and down based on business requirements.

Using New Era Technology also means access to a greater range of skills.

Instead of having an in-house person or team who may only specialise in a particular technology, using an outsourced team means the ability to tap into a broader range of skills, as well as deep expertise in specialist areas. For example, our team includes expert engineers, project managers and technicians with certifications from various technology manufacturers and industry organisations, including Fortinet, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Dell EMC, Microsoft and more. So if you need to change your IT systems, you aren’t limited to your existing team members’ knowledge, expertise, and skills. It also means if an employee is sick or on leave, you aren’t left in the lurch with a broader team to call on if required.

In addition, you can take advantage of the problem-solving skills that come from working across multiple industries and organisations. Our team has experience working on a diverse portfolio of technology projects with complex design requirements and system integrations across various businesses. This means we can take our knowledge and discoveries from multiple projects and draw on a mix of skills across the team to help streamline your systems upgrades, new implementations, and ongoing maintenance requirements.

Better for IT workers too

For IT workers, working with a managed service provider can also provide better career progression potential. Unlike working in-house as an IT helpdesk support officer and finding no other roles available, joining a managed service provider can offer pathways to skills development in different areas and the chance to get exposure across a range of industries.

IT skills and specialisations aren’t evergreen, and it’s essential to keep pace with the changing needs of businesses. Training and professional development are crucial in such an evolving field. Working for an outsourcing provider gives you access to a broader pool of industry problems to solve and the potential to move across the business to other areas based on your interests and changing client demands, rather than stagnating in-house working on outdated and ageing infrastructure.

It also means working in an environment where your skills are valued and seen as a driver of productivity, rather than being viewed as a cost centre.

Is your business ready for a new approach to IT infrastructure management?

With our comprehensive approach, we can work with you to bring together your IT systems management, collaboration platforms, data networking and security. Our approach is flexible and tailored to each client’s individual needs. As a result, your business doesn’t need to fit into a ‘one size fits all’ box, with options to scale how much you use us as your requirements ebb and flow.

Whether your business is facing rapid growth or just trying to do more with the team you already have, our managed services can be an extension to your team. We take the time to understand your business, needs, and organisational goals.

Ready to start? Contact us to find out more.