Posted on 05/28/2005 2:00:01 AM PDT by kingattax
IT teams will shrink dramatically during the next five years as employers adopt competitively priced external suppliers for IT services, according to new research. And, employees lucky enough to stay in a job will find themselves dealing less with technology and assuming more of a business role by managing suppliers.
Gartner's latest prediction is that IT staff numbers will fall 15 per cent by 2010 as companies realize the potential efficiencies of bringing in external suppliers.
The analyst firm says IT departments will find themselves under pressure from suppliers offering prices and levels of professionalism that are difficult to match.
"As IT skills become a more important component of business professionalism, in-house IS staff while be displaced," Gartner said in a statement.
With that in mind, Gartner said companies must this year start the process of evaluating their long-term options - in other words, decide whether - and how - to compete against external suppliers or re-structure to manage those suppliers.
The changing nature of IT departments’ role means that by 2010 six out of 10 people affiliated with IS organizations will take-on business facing roles around information, process and relationships as they manage suppliers.
Departments who do not outsource will increasingly have outsourcing forced on them, according to Gartner. Organizations who do not adopt what Gartner calls "process-based delivery models" will see their service portfolios outsourced at a rate of 25 per cent each year.®
globalism marches on
It's already happening. I'm a contract programmer myself, and the company I'm contracted to has announced four outsourcings of various departments (programming, computer operations, analysis) in the five months I've been there. Some have been domestic, some have been offshore. Their plans for the next couple of years are to do more of the same.
The irony is, a lot of the people who are getting displaced by this aren't full-time employees, though they are getting hit hard. They're contractors who are here on visas from India. Since companies are offshoring their jobs, some of those folks who came here on H-1Bs or L-1s are actually having to think about going back to India to get work. (The company allows, in some circumstances, a full-time employee to bump a contractor out of a position when there's a downsizing, which I think is fair.)
}:-)4
Because of a Supreme Court decision in favor of a contractor who sued Microsoft for employee benefits, arguing that he was as good as employed there because he had been working his same position for years and years, US companies are limiting US contractor terms to avoid incurring that kind of liability themselves. So the contract people who know the most about the operation can't even be kept through outsourcers. That is, unless the contractor remains outside of the jurisdiction of the USA. Somehow it doesn't seem fair. Is this something that Congress could fix?
Where I am now, they have a strictly enforced two-year limit on contractors. You can only be there as a contractor two years, then you MUST be gone at least three months before you can be put up for any other positions. The folks hate it, because it's a big brain drain (really, it takes two years to get to expert status on a system), but it's the company's law and there aren't exceptions made.
I did a contract stint at this same company ten years ago, and back then, there were no limits. There had been contractors there from the same company for 5+ years, and many of them were eventually offered full-time jobs. Now, they also have a strict policy against "rent to own"; they absolutely refuse to transition a contractor over to a full-time employee spot, no matter how good or useful the contractor is.
}:-)4
Could Congress kill the liability trap that leads to this situation with a law? Or would the robes just get all huffy and overrule them?
Exactly...It's a business cycle. Companies outsource their IT to save money. That's o.k. for awhile, but finally comes a time when they realize they can do it cheaper in house because of the higher and higher prices the outsourcing firms start charging....ebb and flow...ebb and flow....
At my company, you could have a ticket open for days for something as minor as an e-mail problem. A few years ago, I found it was much easier just to fix my own issues and those of my co-workers. Now everybody in the office comes to me while the IT guys sit around doing who know's what.
That's pretty harsh. Rent-to-own is how I got my job.
Usually, we're arguing about who's gonna take the ticket, "all my email is gone again." Then going deskside to toggle the "view all"/"view unread" button, for the 10th time. Seriously Sam, doing what you're doing (helping fellow cubemates), is how I decided to go full time and get paid for playing with computers. BTW, what's up with the Sox?
"They are all going to go bonkers when the year 10,000 bug becomes a reality."
Guess I'll have to change my IMS/DC code again. More OT.
This is what SHOULD happen to corporate IT.
Unless you can buy all your IT needs off the shelf and hook them up easily, the suppliers of these technologies won't be able to penetrate the middle sized enterprise market. It is inevtable that ASPs and services are gong to do 95% of what every business needs to operate because these technology providers want the beggest market possible.
Large enterprises buy everything else off-the-shelf: They don't have their office furniture custom made. All this in-house technology development is wasteful and the ROI is not there.
I worked for a company in downtown Boston a few years ago where half the employees were ten-dollar temps and IT was contract. Talk about cheap labor. The company didn't have to pay into a benefit or retirement plan, and there was no question about firing anyone. On the other hand, loyalty, motivation and pride went down the tubes. Some business plan! The job market has changed dramatically since then, and the outfit I'm with now uses some well-paid freelancers, and IT people are cherished members of the family. With no tool to measure, it's impossible to say that the workforce is more productive and dedicated, but it sure seems that way. If I've got a problem with my machine or the net, there is someone there within minutes, not days.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.