Industry Trends Tips
Read these 9 Industry Trends Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about IT Jobs tips and hundreds of other topics.
The Benefits Of IT Wireless Networking Boost Its Popularity
One of the business industry trends that has affected the IT industry is the growth in popularity of utilizing wireless networks. This IT networking alternative provides businesses with some significant and enticing advantages.
Because wireless technologies offer access to the internet, and therefore organizational resources, from anywhere within the network's coverage area, a company's staff can be more productive. This encourages greater collaboration and dynamic teamwork. On a more basic level, for tech pros in IT networking jobs, wireless technology offers quick installation options and cost-effective total IT solutions. Industry trends reports have found that eliminating, or at the least drastically reducing, wiring expenses, can provide a large cost savings over wired IT networking setups. It is no wonder companies want to avoid the hassle of stringing and tripping over a labyrinth of cables and the expurgation of wires also allows businesses to easily expand the network as needed.
Backing from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill, designates $6 billion for wireless and broadband expansion. With the clear advantages of wireless IT networking and increased funding to support the initiatives, the remainder of 2009 will undoubtedly see sizeable deployment of wireless technologies.
Understanding the Difference Between IT Managers and Project Manager Job Roles
While there are many similarities between IT Managers and Project Managers, there are also vital differences as well and it is important for IT industry executives to truly understand these distinctions. Industry trends reports show that the success rate of technology initiatives increases when IT Managers truly understand project management concepts.
For example, one of the key differences between the job roles is that of focus. A project manager's authority is limited to the timeframe of the project, whereas an IT manager oversees the departmental efforts of the total IT solutions division. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the IT manager to provide the required resources and manpower that the project manager will need for their tasks. Because the project manager has truncated authority, they can sometimes face confusion or resistance from team members when regular work responsibilities and project activities conflict. The IT manager can assist by adjusting departmental priorities and workloads accordingly. Consequently, effective communication between these IT industry job roles is vital to achieving a positive project outcome.
Implementing Project Management Strategies Has Become a Trend
The popularity of implementing project management strategies has become a business industry trend of sorts over the past several years. This is because more and more organizations are realizing the advantages that doing so offers.
Project managers must construct cross-functional teams that include individuals from various divisions of the organization. As such they have to have strong communication skills and be adept at conflict resolution. When the varying priorities of the diverse project team members cause disagreements, the project manager must be able to iron out the concerns to keep the team focused on the end goal of providing the company with a total IT solution.
Proficient planning is perhaps one of the key factors that helps to keep the project on track. Even with the best-laid plans, changes generally occur and when they do, the project manager needs to be able to adroitly guide and support team members to ensure the successful completion of the project.
The IT Industry Is Starting to Formulate Tentative Recovery Plans
With the business market slowly improving, companies in the IT industry are starting to look ahead and tentatively beginning to plan their recovery strategies. With carefully consideration and attention to tenuous budgets, many IT job industries seem to still be in a survival mode of sorts.
IT industry trends reports from Microsoft and Harris Interactive, reported that, on average, sixty three percent of their budgets were being used to “keep the lights on” and only thirty seven percent was earmarked for innovation. Furthermore, only twenty two percent noted giving their business a competitive edge was their top spending priority.
However, one hopeful sign was that in terms ranking the priorities of their expenditures, business efficiency placed higher than cost cutting initiatives. So even as the economy recovers and financial pressures start to ease, IT industry executives will undoubtedly remain extremely cautious when considering how to efficiently divide and distribute their precious budgetary dollars.
IT Departments Need to Sort Out Their True Priorities
There seems to be a bit of confusion amongst IT industry executives. A recent business industry trends survey from the Info-Tech Research Group found that CIOs and top IT decision makers rated the skill and abilities of their staff to be the most important factor in ensuring the effective delivery of a solid level of support to the enterprise.
This was an extensive study that reached out to over 1,400 decision makers in a variety of IT job industries. Yet, the findings point to an alarming disconnect between priorities and actual commitment. We all know actions speak louder than words and the actions of these IT industry decision makers have missed the mark.
While the capabilities and expertise of their staff clearly ranked ahead of hardware and software capabilities in their philosophical priority list, when it came to reviewing their actual resource allotment expenditures, funding levels for hiring and training came in near the bottom of the list of seventeen IT management priorities.
Hiring Managers Face Conflicting Staffing Demands - Cost Containment, Retention and Attraction
It's not easy being a hiring manager in the IT industry these days. Constantly faced with the conflicting demands of retaining good quality tech employees, attracting new skilled talent for upcoming business needs, as well as keeping labor budgets in check, can be a daunting task to say the least. Yet not giving workforce issues proper attention can seriously harm an organization in the long run.
Of the IT executives polled in Gartner Research's recent IT industry trends reports, nearly two-thirds stated that hiring for their IT job industries would be put on hold until February of 2010. This may or may not be a wise choice because in spite of the fluctuating economy, certain IT skill sets such as Oracle, SAP, Java,.Net, SOA, and PeopleSoft continue to be highly sought after. Therefore, it is essential that IT industry executives keep employee engagement and retention top priority. This will help prevent the costly mistake of having to supplant the skilled employees they have in these roles because replacing them could be very difficult and time consuming.
The Job Outlook is Improving
After months of gloom and disparaging industry trend reports, there is a glimpse of potential improvement on the horizon. According to a business industry trends report released by CareerBuilder, fifty-three percent of employers have indicated plans to hire permanent full-time employees within the next year and forty percent noted plans to employ contract or temporary workers.
Some of this hiring activity is undoubtedly due to a need to rebuild after drastic staffing cuts conducted in response to trying economic times. When asked which departments and functions were highest on their priority list in terms of anticipated hiring activities, hiring managers listed technology first, followed by customer service, and marketing/sales.
What was somewhat surprising however was that employers noted that despite the dirge of available candidates on the market, forty four percent of the resumes they receive for open job postings are from unqualified applicants. Therefore, it is taking a considerable amount of time to review and screen the large number of resumes that are submitted in order to find talent that is truly suitable.
Hiring Managers Expected to Increase Usage of Staffing Agencies
According to industry trend research from job board giant, CareerBuilder, a larger number of hiring managers are expecting to utilize the services of a staffing firm in the third quarter of 2009 as compared to the usage ratio that transpired in the second quarter. More specifically, hiring managers at large organizations, those with 500 or more employees, anticipate a nine percent increase in the number of temporary or contract employees they engage through a staffing firm in the third quarter. That's a small but positive increase from the Q2 numbers. However, these large corporations noted that the number of permanent placements made through staffing firms would remain relatively level.
When broken down by vertical markets, there is good news for those in the IT industry. CareerBuilder's industry trends reports found that temp and contract positions in the IT industry would show marked positive improvement with increased growth of approximately nine percent.
Open Source Adoption Increasing in the Business Intelligence Market
Business industry trends reports from Third Nature, a consulting and technology research firm focused on information management, explored the adoption rate of open source software in the IT industry market of business intelligence. The top motivating factor for incorporating open source technology into this realm was found to be the potential cost savings. Secondary reasons were the reduced vendor dependence that open source provides and the ease of integration with existing tools and technologies.
Yet there are still shortcomings to open source software and this has been found to be true across all IT job industries. Therefore IT professionals who are being asked to consider or deploy open source in the business intelligence market would be wise to heed lessons learned from other technology segments. First, organizations should consider establishing open source policies, which can provide blueprints and guidelines for the use and implementation of open source. Secondly, it may be advisable to start out by augmenting the division's existing software rather than fully replacing it. Lastly, always keep in mind the return on investment (ROI). Even if there is a huge cost savings, if the software creates more problems than it solves, the ROI simply does not compute.
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