Micro Focus Report Highlights Shortage of Core IT Skills
Calls on businesses to future-proof business-critical IT systems
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Micro Focus, an enterprise application management and modernization solution provider, had released the results of its corporate report, Safeguarding the Corporate IT Assets that includes research findings from 450 C-level respondents about IT recruitment within large organizations. The report reveals a lack of core IT skills that could prove disastrous for the companies
The report builds on initial quantitative research conducted by Micro Focus that showed how businesses are not safeguarding their core business-critical technology assets. Produced in conjunction with the international business school INSEAD, the report demonstrates that although organizations believe core systems are the most valuable to business operations during a recession, the majority continue to focus instead on the recruitment of IT skills for newer Web 2.0 technologies. Such recruitment policies waste valuable resources and fail to safeguard the future of one of the most valuable assets an organization has at its disposal: its core IT.
In September 2008, Micro Focus polled 450 respondents across France, Germany, Italy, UK, and the U.S. -- 33 percent CFOs, 33 percent CIOs, and 33 percent HR directors -- to discover what their organizations were doing to maintain and develop their IT systems. All companies had annual revenues of at least $100 million, with 61 percent reporting a turnover of over $1 billion. The results should serve as a wake-up call to business and government alike that, even in tougher times, they must remain focused on recruiting professionals with the right skills to develop core IT assets in the future.
In the report’s foreword, INSEAD’s Soumitra Dutta states, “This research report points to the fact that, despite business leaders stating that skills to modernize core IT assets are the most valuable in a recession, global organizations are failing to plan for the essential skills required to manage and maintain these systems, which have withstood the test of time and still deliver value to the business each day.”
“While this report shows that some countries are more aware of the need to recruit core IT skills than others, overall, everyone is failing to recruit the skills needed to maintain the very heart of their business operations,” states Stephen Kelly, CEO, Micro Focus. “Core systems will provide the most value to businesses during this recession, so it is essential for decision-makers not to be distracted by newer, less critical technologies. Web 2.0 solutions have huge potential to transform the way businesses operate, but these ‘shiny new toys’ should not be pursued at the expense of protecting and developing the IT assets at the heart of the business,” concluded Kelly.
A full copy of the report can be downloaded from http://www.microfocus.com/000/Safeguarding_the_Corporate_IT_Assets_tcm21-26660.pdf.