We spoke to a few friends from the coal face to get their personal take on the industry and skills trends for 2012.
Below are 10 days worth of insights and interviews. We have since launched the #ByteIT blog on Tumblr to be our centre of opinion and discussion. Join in via Twitter, Tumblr or Spiceworks.
Day 10: IT – under pinning the UK economy
Be it media, retail, the construction industry, or financial services; the creative and dynamic heart of every industry is IT. It underpins the whole UK economy. IT systems, services, software and communications support every sector; IT holds the key to innovation; and IT provides the driving force for productivity and future growth.
As an industry, IT and telecoms contributes a massive £81 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK every year; that’s 9% of the UK’s economy. The Internet makes an estimated contribution of £100 billion per annum to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Driving competition and innovation, IT is at the heart of all ‘new economy’ sectors from low carbon to biotechnology to space. Emerging trends set to have a major impact on business, such as security and data protection, cloud computing, real-world web, are all IT dependent.
Better adoption of IT by UK businesses offers the potential for a £50 billion uplift in Gross Value Added (GVA), with the skills of the IT workforce a critical driver for realising this value. So to generate this economic growth the UK economy needs the highly-skilled and qualified professional workforce to continue to effective exploitation of IT.
Employer demand for IT professionals on the rise
Modern economies are driven by skilled people who create and use technology. We need more, many more, of these people to generate growth and to create and fill the jobs of the future.
e-skills UK research published in March 2011 shows that, for the first time since 2008, there were more IT jobs advertised than there were people to fill them: in Q3 2010 the number of positions advertised reached 101,000. And at the same time the unemployment rate for IT staff fell to just 3.1%, compared with 8.3% for the workforce as a whole.
With demand so high in such a critical sector, it’s of little surprise that, despite the current economic downturn, employers are crying out for yet more highly-skilled, well qualified professionals. Demand is typically for those with high-level technical skills, such as SQL, C# and .NET.
With employer demand for more highly skilled staff increasing, the key for people working in IT looking to progress their careers and improve earning potential would appear to be to gaining higher-level skills.
1 in 20 of the UK workforce, over 1.5 million people, already works in IT and telecoms. And with demand for IT professionals predicted to grow by half-a-million new entrants over the next five years, doesn’t it sound like IT is the place to be?
Skills – the key to future success in IT
The last thing one can accuse IT of doing is ever standing still. Against trend, and contrary to the current economic downturn, the IT industry continues to grow.
Whether working for a large corporate in an IT role or for an IT company, whether running an SME or working for one, as a freelancer, or as a new entrant to the IT industry, gaining the right knowledge and skills is essential for the future success of the industry and the individuals within it.
by @aljwoods
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Day 9: A shift in expectations
Following on from the app + Internet model I described last week, I see some broad challenges likely to impact businesses as they try to adopt it (or something similar).
When access to company data is required from multiple device types, both on premises and off-site, it’s important that IT departments have a solid infrastructure to service the range of demands.
Private cloud infrastructures are gathering momentum, with some leveraging open source technologies, and allowing specialist engineering teams to build an in-house solution acting as the backbone of operations.
App developers and designers can build for enterprise clouds, creating tailored desktop and mobile applications for the organisations. As the prominence of consumer tech in the workforce stretches the expectations that users have for experience and interface, the long held stereotypical image of ugly enterprise software may wither and die.
I believe user expectations will alter the approach to development of features and functionality. The change is one focused around perceptions, and to some extent branding - away from software and towards apps. This is in many ways a small scale representation of the changing times from “IT” and toward “tech”. The terms denote age for me, much like “Macintosh” sounds dated next to “Mac”.
The culture of “There’s an app for that” has trained smartphone users to almost expect one tool per task. Is there a chance we’ll see a shift as enterprise apps perform granular roles to meet specific departmental or team needs?
If consumerisation also means corporate software programmers pay closer attention to what developers in the consumer space are doing, adopting practices and following trends, then the popular smartphone and tablet app platforms are the enterprise domains of tomorrow.
I’m excited by the idea that an enterprise might have its own app marketplace to empower the workforce. In this scenario, we’d see a series of in-house apps built to cover any gaps left unresolved by off-the-shelf solutions.
It’s important that business requirements are understood fully. Perhaps a small part of the consumersation trend has been a result of the breakdown in communication with IT departments. Placing bespoke apps in the hands of departments and allowing them to take ownership of its development could up the organisation, but there are likely to be considerable cost implications as well as an increased demand for cross platform development skills.
by @mled
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Day 8: Curl up with cloud computing
In my previous post I talked about the implications of HTML5. It’s powerful, sure, but now it’s time to examine the dominant model right now: app plus Internet.
Apps are everywhere. Native applications with the added ingredient of cloud computing ensure that the user experience is as good as it can be.
Apps allow for deeper integration with the hardware and therefore the context is enhanced by knowledge of the environment surrounding the user.
With apps, the data isn’t just accessible; it’s experienced.
In the mind of the user, apps make each form factor perform a different function which matters in specific situations.
Consider it this way: computers are for creation, mobile is for quick reference, and tablet is for... interaction? The exact role of tablet is still being defined.
Jason Calacanis posted his thoughts on the tablet form factor, and how it brings a new era of experiencing technology: “curled-up” computing.
Briefly, we’ve had the “lean forward” experience on desktop PC, we “lean back” watching TV on the sofa, and we quickly reference content on our feet with mobile. Now tablet brings us the “curled-up paradigm”. Just you wait, online retailers stocking tablets will display - People who bought this item also bought... [Picture link to a Bean bag]
I await an in-depth analysis of the impact that form factor has on the data we access from the cloud. Not just “more people watch movies curled-up”, but business users too - what changes do they commit to company reports, and what input or feedback do they contribute to projects?
App developers need to consider the prominence they place on specific features in light of the form factor. Porting an iPhone app to all platforms is surely a short sighted endeavour.
It can be argued that business apps need to perform every possible function, just like the desktop software used at the office does, to meet the needs of the entire workforce. Smart cross-platform deployments will iteratively learn from analytics on a per-form-factor basis which features need to be given priority.
by @mled
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Day 7: Luke Medland - CTO at e-skills UK
For the third instalment in our series of interviews we looked to our own CTO, Luke Medland, for his thoughts on what 2012 might hold for the UKs technology workforce.
We talked largely about what skills people working in, or aspiring to work in, IT should be looking to acquire and again, we came back to the importance of programming.
“The advent of mobile development has been a dominant trend in recent years and there has been a dramatic increase in the need for people who know these technologies. iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, these are just platforms - but the underlying language is what matters.”
“But of the development trends, web programming has to stand out. If you can pick up dynamic web development - HTML5, CSS, JavaScript - you can apply that across any number of platforms and devices. It’s a skills set that is always going to be used somewhere one way or the other, whether that’s through websites or on mobile, the skills are transferable.”
The other recurring theme is the convergence of IT and mobile. As we have discussed, more and more people are using mobile devices to access business applications as well as multimedia and this is a catalyst for the drive towards cloud computing.
“If you’re in the IT industry and using tablet PCs, you naturally start looking at web and cloud solutions to store your documents and media.”
In web development in general we’ve seen a lot of alternatives to desktop applications. Google Docs has matured, Microsoft has their own web apps. We’re starting to see, not a demise of native apps, but an alternative offering as web becomes increasingly powerful as a platform.
“With cloud computing you’re consuming IT services as a utility, you no longer have to have an installed base of software that’s deployed locally. I see businesses ultimately moving to that model.”
We talk about the Cloud as a single entity, but it carries a number of implications. It’s not just about consuming services from the web, it’s consuming infrastructure and managed platforms.
IT departments no longer have to worry about installing and maintaining native client-side software, users can access their tools where ever they have an Internet connection.
“The skills implications of these are quite evident - this innovation demands more people to develop, implement and use new technologies.”
Follow @lukemedland on Twitter.
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Day 6: Learn more to earn more
“Lots of companies are looking for people with HTML5 but it’s such a new language there aren’t many people out there. So, people looking to get into programming in the games industry - learn HTML5 very quickly. There will be lots of opportunities.”
- Philip Oliver, Blitz Games Studios
Despite the adverse economic conditions facing the UK at the moment, the IT industry appears to be coping well. There has been a decline in the number of IT&T liquidations, increasing acquisition activity in the sector, high levels of business confidence reported by employers, and an ever growing number of advertised jobs. It’s often quoted that the IT&T industry is expected to require a further 550,000 new entrants over the next 5 years.
The e-skills UK Bulletin found the primary roles sought by employers to be design and development, typically accounting for 60% of all permanent positions advertised. This trend has been constant in recent years and the latest Bulletin, to be publish this spring, is expected to report much the same.
In the same report, of the Top 10 skills demanded by employers, seven were programming; SQL, C, C#, .NET, ASP, Java, and JavaScript. And programming was certainly high on Philip Oliver’s agenda in our conversation with him last week.
In the IT & telecoms sector developing and updating skills in these areas is clearly advantageous for those with an eye on the career ladder - the old mantra “learn more to earn more” couldn't be truer. With technology moving at such a fast pace it’s imperative to stay on trend if you want stay valued by employers.
The challenge has traditionally been to access the courses you need to stay ahead of the game. This is especially true for contractors, consultants and small organisations. Work for a large corporate and chances are you have access to training resources. Not only that, but you probably work in an environment where it is possible, however indispensable you are to the organisation, to take time away to improve your knowledge and skills.
SMEs are much less able to shoulder the inevitable burden when a key team member takes time off for training. They’re also far less able to offer in-house solutions. So the onus is very much on the individual.
It is with these people and small organisations in mind that the National Skills Academy for IT has brought together online learning resources from multiple vendors. We provide up-to-date, relevant content, ensuring that individuals are not priced out of learning. We also have the tools to profile your skills so you can take complete command of your own skills and career development.
by @aljwoods
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Day 5: Implications of HTML5
Much excitement circles around this newest chapter of web technology. Still in development and therefore ripe for experimentation, yet perching on the horizon for the entrenched landmasses of the IT world, HTML5 is one of the key technologies I anticipate sailing in to disrupt the status quo.
What does HTML5 bring to the table? For me it solves a problem, or rather settles an argument. At a mobile phone launch event I entered a discussion with two other bloggers about the choices that companies face when approaching digital marketing - app, website, or social media?
Developing the content you want to showcase in HTML5 will bring enough flexibility that it can be reused as all three channels - especially with tools like Phonegap on the market.
Another problem I believe it solves is ICT education - something of a hot topic at the moment. HTML5 offers something for everyone when you settle down to learning about the web.
I used to teach HTML4 to a Year 8 class - if I was gifted the opportunity to do so again I’d certainly dive into HTML5 and CSS3.
HTML5 brings together HTML, CSS and JS so you can make really quite complex applications and games. As you progress through the learning process you'll continually find a new piece of functionality you can put to use.
Mozilla has done an excellent job of educating the youthful masses about HTML5 with events like #MozFest and tools like X-ray goggles. At the National Skills Academy for IT we have a few resources on getting started with HTML5.
But what does HTML5 have to offer businesses?
Microsoft announced at the end of last year it would be forcing upgrades through so that overall the web offers a better and safer experience. This will mean that any legacy systems in IT or intranets that relied on IE6 need a refresh.
Why not jump ahead and look at what can be done with HTML5? You can already see the advancements that IE10 is going to make possible through Microsoft’s test drive pages.
The transition to HTML5 will help to bring flexibility for the workforce, with access and interactivity to information available across different device types - thanks largely to a variety of frameworks that are already quite well established.
I’ve barely scratched the surface on the implications. What are you planning to create with HTML5?
by @mled
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Day 4: Playing with technology - insights from the UK games industry
For our second round of insights the National Skills Academy for IT was lucky enough to speak with Philip Oliver, CEO and co-founder of Blitz Games Studios, one of the most stable and respected development studios in the world.
We started off talking about what is driving the big skills issues facing the games industry.
"From a visual point of view," said Philip, "everyone expects games to look really nice."
"It's taken for granted that an artist trying to get into the industry knows that he/she has to be a good traditional artist. They also know that they have to do modelling and texturing. These subjects are known and generally taught very well."
"What's missing are the highly technical artists, technical animators and SFX artists - the more advanced skills that the games industry needs haven't filtered through yet"
The new thing is HTML5.
There are lots of predictions that HTML5 spells the end of Flash, and lots of companies are looking for people who know and understand what is still a developing language.
"Programming in the games industry has traditionally been C++. However, there is a lot of market fragmentation going on at the moment. iOS is programmed in Objective C, web in either JAVA, PHP or Flash."
Going mobile
Mobility is for games, as for the rest of technology industries, a major issue, The way people access and use computer games and the devices they use to do so are changing.
"People love smart phones and tablets," said Philip, "and the changing shift in habits is a significant industry factor. It's now easy to buy and play a small game on the bus or in the car on these mobile devices."
The same trend can be seen in the way people expect to be able to access business applications, as we discussed on Day 2.
The convergence and integration of communication devices and business applications is increasingly common, with e-skills UK research showing that nearly 400 million people will be using mobile devices for enterprise applications this year.
This reflects, again, a change in habits in work and collaboration. According to Work Wise UK, an estimated 7.2 million people in the UK now work from home.
The workforce is also much more mobile than it used to be, moving from location to location during the day. In these situations, people still want to be able to access their email and business documents, or to access multimedia such as video games.
"I remember developing a puzzle game in the late '90s. I hawked it about the industry but no-one would publish it. The minimum retail price for a game was £30 - no one was going to buy a puzzle game for £30, and I agreed with them. These days you can sell a puzzle game for 69 pence and then sell 5 million downloads."
The game Angry Birds is a textbook example. Launched on Apple iOS in December 2009, within a year owners Rovio Mobile had sold 12 million paid-for downloads.
The future's bright; the future is multi-platform
What happened next defines one of the key themes facing IT dependent industries over the next 12 months.
Having enjoyed such run-away success with an iOS application, Rovio Mobile went multi-platform. To date, there have been in excess of 500 million downloads across 15 different platforms, making Angry Birds the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far according to the online-publication MIT Entrepreneurship Review.
"One of the biggest issues for the games industry is how to write a game efficiently and make sure it can be supported cross-platform." said Philip.
"Lots of companies are looking for people with HTML5 experience but it's such a new laguage there's aren't many people out there.
"So, people looking to get into programming in the games industry - learn HTML5 very quickly! There will be lots of opportunities."
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Day 3: Communication works for those who work at it
“Everyone in the IT industry has to become more articulate and relevant when talking about their business propositions.
We have to become much, much more articulate about establishing the business value of what we do.”
- Colin Bannister, CA Technologies
Over the last couple of days we’ve looked at some emerging trends in the the UK technology industry and picked up on themes from our chat with Colin Bannister.
One of the key issues we touched upon was the importance of the people working in technology being able to articulate their business propositions effectively.
Central to nearly all future trends identified by e-skills UK Technology Insights is the need for specific and high level technical knowledge. For example, in the systems that underpin the convergence of communications and IT; voice and video data; and mobile devices.
Innovation in technology and in the way it’s utilised is the driving force for economic growth across all sectors. High level technical expertise will be required to drive and best exploit that innovation, and to apply it in a proper business context.
And yet without the ability to understand the business application of IT and communicate it effectively, won’t this innovation and technical prowess be wasted?
Increasingly IT and telecoms professionals are expected to demonstrate core business skills. Creativity, technical ability and entrepreneurship are not sufficient in isolation. As IT becomes ever more critical to the business services it is supporting, the technical skills of the IT workforce need to be complimented by an understanding of their businesses broader objectives.
And so, companies employing IT professionals are looking for people with not just technical knowledge and expertise but also the ability to talk to business people in a language that they understand.
Not only that but the critical front-line will also need to be suitably equipped to know and understand how to support end-users.
The help desk is a fundamental part of the application of IT. As technology becomes more complicated, often in inverse proportion to the complexity of the user experience, the need for support professionals to understand and articulate effectively increases.
Because of the importance we consider business and interpersonal skills to have for people working in IT, at the National Skills Academy for IT we offer a range of business change, business analysis and business process management resources. Accessing theses gives you the opportunity to develop your skills in areas of key importance to employers.
by @aljwoods
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Day 2: Consumerisation
We blame many trends coinciding for the rise in consumerisation, and then choose to embrace or fight it. By making use of what the workforce already has, or encouraging their creativity in sourcing tools for their jobs we no doubt see some cost savings for the business.
Consumerisation is a sliding scale along which each company uniquely decides their comfort level. Large enterprises naturally have longer cycle times for releasing upgrades or additional functionality that can be supported for the entire workforce. Small and medium sized businesses can turn things around faster and deploy the latest consumer tech - with all its performance and mobility improvements.
Break down the cost of software and you see development of bespoke software that is fit for enterprise deployment is extraordinarily expensive, and conversely the cost of smartphone apps that perform one task well is little to nothing.
Even though “there’s an app for that” we need to consider what happens before and after the app can be used - how does that task contribute to a project, and is the process as smooth as it can be?
Ease of use is a well documented trade-off against security and reliability. With many consumer apps backing up and synchronising data with public clouds, we see vast amounts of information sensitive to companies walk out of the door.
Evernote, Google Docs and Skype have all appeared on my radar - not only do I use them personally but I’ve seen organisations need to support their use. Done right, this starts with IT teams identifying that certain users are relying on these tools to complete their work. Consultation then leads to a business case and perhaps ultimately a set of solutions is offered to the entire workforce.
Just as IT support staff need to speak the language of business, so too must the workforce accept training and be prepared to share knowledge. Keeping up with the pace of technological innovation is tough for IT support. Never mind a vendor neutral approach - consumerisation creates the need for entirely different realms of flexibility and adaptability.
by @mled
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Day 1: Colin Bannister - CTO and VP at CA Technologies
We asked Colin for his take on the UK technology industry and skills trends he has witnessed over the last 12 months and what we should be looking out for next.
The economy was an inevitable starting point. It is impossible not to have noticed that it's been going through some tough times in recent years. IT is, in Colin's opinion, a key part of the solution:
"Organisations are looking to optimise what they already have - being in a recessionary period, there is an inevitable drive to optimise the IT environment in its totality."
On the importance of IT to the UK, and wider, economy, Colin said:
"There's a greater realisation, across Europe, that to get us out of the recession, we need to drive innovation into our business. IT is going to be core to that innovation drive."
This innovation can be seen in the way people expect to access data and business applications.
In Q2 2001, mobile voice and data services generated around £3.7bn, with almost half of the UK internet users accessing the web via mobile phone data connections.
With nearly 400 million people predicted to be using mobile devices for enterprise applications by 2012, according to research from e-skills UK, the convergence of communications and IT is a major issue for businesses in the UK.
According to Colin:
"Mobility is driving the requirement to have much greater awareness of the devices that we expect to access business services through."
The inevitable impact on skills is the need for people who are competent in developing and supporting these new devices, services, and user habits.
The big issue that Colin sees for the UK IT industry is having people who can communicate effectively:
"Everyone in the IT industry has to become more articulate and relevant when talking about their business propositions. We have to become much more articulate about establishing the business value of what we do."
"As it becomes ever more critical to the business services that IT is supporting, no matter what sector it may be, employers are looking for people with the exceptional communication skills who can talk to business people in a language that they understand."
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