The sequester will hurt tech nationally
The federal government's automatic budget cuts, due to begin Friday, may accelerate cost savings measures already in place via sharing of services across agencies, IT consolidation, and an increasing reliance of off-the-shelf products and cloud-based services, as opposed to customized development.
However, there will also be damage to IT spending, and a period of uncertainty as the government reacts to the cuts. Known as the sequester, the automatic cuts are expected to hit "full force," and that will impact IT spending, said Andrew Bartels, an analyst at Forrester Research. Read more...
IT spending to grow in 2012 despite economic woes, says IDC
Worldwide IT spending remains on course to grow by 6 percent in 2012 despite the grim economic situation in Europe, thanks to strong software, storage, smartphone and tablet sales, according to IDC.
While 2012 has been a tough year for many IT vendors, they have done better overall than many expected in the first half of the year, IDC said.
For example, software spending has been robust, even in parts of the world where the economy has been weakest, as businesses hope software tools and applications will help them implement cost-reduction strategies.
The 6 percent growth compares to a 7 percent increase in worldwide IT spending last year. IDC expects 6 percent growth in 2013. Read more...
IT needs to use metrics to move out of the shadows
Here is a problem for IT: Many users feel that it is a black hole that things go into but never come out of. It doesn't help that many IT departments like it that way and believe that the less scrutiny, the better.
That is a dangerous attitude. If IT wants to be a great enigma, then it must accept the consequences: lack of respect, mistrust of intent and difficulty in entering into the mainstream of the company. If none of that sounds good, then IT must open itself up, show itself off and be accountable for its actions. It must be as willing to accept blame when it is at fault as it is to welcome praise when it is successful. In short, it must start acting like other departments in the company. Read more...
Largest IT employment gains in four years reported
The nation's employment outlook for IT professionals has suddenly surged, gaining 18,200 jobs, the largest monthly increase since 2008, according to tech employment-research firm Foote Partners.
In July, 4,900 new IT jobs were added in two job segments, telecommunications, and separately "data processing, hosting and related services," Foote Partners said today. Also added were 13,300 other jobs in sectors called "management and technical consulting services" and "computer systems design/related services." The firm says these last two categories, with a combined total of 242,000 jobs added in the past 24 months, have seen solid growth even in the midst of the nation's general economic malaise. Read more...
IT job seekers face hot yet finicky market
The IT job market is either hot or lackluster, but mostly it is difficult for anyone who is seeking a job or hiring. There are plenty of companies searching for employees, but jobs are nonetheless elusive for many. It's a job market of contradictions.
Employers aren't making it easier for job seekers, and may be suffering from expectation inflation. Some employers want superstars, with resumes as rich as the high school student who not only quarterbacked the football team, but led the math club to a state tournament, played Lady Macbeth on stage and hit a 4.0 GPA.
And then there Crown Equipment, a manufacturing company that makes fork lifts and other types of systems used to move materials around. It has about 16 IT job openings in product development and business operations. The problem Crown faces in attracting candidates is its location. It's in New Bremen, Ohio, (Pop. 3,000). Thankfully, St. Marys is about 8 miles down the road, and Dayton, only 60 miles away.
"[New Bremen is] a great place to raise a family but if you want to go to Taco Bell you have to drive to St. Marys," said Jim Gaskell, director of global Insite products at Crown.
Insite is a name of a product line that helps customers track their forklifts and personnel, make better use of their equipment, and provide overall operational intelligence. Crown host the system in the cloud, and customers, if they chose to, can deploy independent of their internal IT. Read more...
Tech hotshots: The rise of the IT business analyst
The hottest job in IT right now might be the least "T" of them all: business analyst.
Tech purists may shudder -- is it the revenge of the suits? -- but 23% of the IT executive respondents to Computerworld's Forecast 2012 survey said they planned to hire for business analytics skills in the next 12 months, up from 13% in the previous year's survey.
"IT business analyst" was also rated one of the country's top 12 jobs to pursue last year by Money Magazine, which listed median pay for that position at $83,100. Computerworld's Salary Survey 2012 listed an average total compensation for IT technology/business system analysts at $84,376, up 1.4% from 2011. Read more...
IT offshoring: Romney vs. Obama
Offshore outsourcing, from the manufacturing to call center industries, has become a major issue in the 2012 presidential race.
Less clear is what these two candidates would do, if anything, about the offshoring of jobs that are among the most critical to the future of the U.S. economy -- IT positions and other highly-skilled, knowledge-based occupations.
IT offshore outsourcing has rarely been raised specifically to date by either President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
But both presidential candidates, through their records and actions, appear to have deep knowledge about offshore outsourcing.
Here's how they stand based on their words and actions. Read more...
Gov’s ‘open data’ strategy: It’ll cost too much and won’t work
The Cabinet Office has revealed "concern" over whether the public sector's IT is up to the job of supporting more transparency, from responses to last year's open data consultation.
The consultation, which closed in October, drew more than 400 responses from industry, government and other interested parties. The Cabinet Office asked for feedback on issues including how best to gather and make use of data held by the public sector, how to encourage the private sector to make use of it, and how to bolster individuals' rights to access their own data held by public sector, known as an 'enhanced right to data'.
Questions were raised by the respondents over whether current public sector IT is up to the task of supporting the enhanced right to data and whether organisations are sufficiently skilled. Read more...
13 Windows 8 features worth knowing about
Upgrades, system migration, support headaches -- IT folks are probably dreading the next major Windows rollout. Yet Windows 8, which is scheduled to move to the beta stage in late February and will likely launch in the fall, does offer several compelling new features for both IT and end users.
By far the most talked-about aspect of Windows 8 is the Metro interface. Designed for touchscreen computers and tablets, and built to use HTML5 and CSS3, Metro ties into Internet apps like SkyDrive and Flickr. As with Windows Phone 7, you can swipe to navigate through tiles showing live Web info like stocks and news as well as more traditional apps. Read more...
Up-and-coming tech jobs — and how to land one
Forecasts for IT hiring are almost universally predicting that project managers and business analysts will be in demand in 2012, but what about cloud transformation officers?
With big data, mobile computing, social media, cloud computing and the consumerization of IT all converging on IT in 2012, some new -- and intriguing -- job titles are beginning to emerge.
Computerworld went digging and unearthed a handful of positions you can expect to see popping up more and more -- along with details on what you'll need to land one of them. Read on, future chief agile officers. Read more...
IT managers are aloof, insular, says psychologist
IT managers and their staffs are different from the rest of us.
They view the world in terms of "us against them" and see others in an organization as pests or threats to their IT universe, says Billie Blair, who holds a doctorate in organizational psychology and heads Change Strategist Inc., a Los Angeles-based management consulting firm.
Organizational psychologists have an understanding of management and psychology. They use that knowledge to help firms and organizations understand behaviors that can impinge on the ability to implement required changes, said Blair.
Blair also has the perspective of having once overseen an IT department as a former dean of the College of Psychology and Human Services at California State University.
Blair looks at the performance of an entire organization, including IT, and draws observations from that work.
IT managers see themselves as "reigning supreme," says Blair, but they are also capable of having a dramatic impact. In an interview with Computerworld, she outlines various personnel and organizational issues facing IT executives. Read more...
Code-probing, not Angry Birds, will define cloud’s success
The cloud promises a new era of cost reduction and agility for IT, and enterprises are diving in (warning: PDF) to secure these benefits.
But the process for moving applications to the cloud can be messy, particularly for those companies that haven't battle-tested their applications to ensure they can run in the cloud at scale.
So, while it's easier to get excited about running Netflix in the cloud than to get excited about load-testing tools, it's the latter that may well be the killer app for a growing army of developers.
After all, who cares if you've developed the next Angry Birds if your app can't handle the load imposed by more than you and a few of your friends using it? Read more...
IT outsourcing to China increases despite drawbacks
When it comes to information technology and business process outsourcing, China has been on a tear. Global services exports from China nearly tripled, from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $3.5 billion in 2010, with IT services accounting for 65 percent of the total, according to a report released this month by outsourcing consultancy and analyst firm Everest Group.
That, says Everest's analysts, officially makes China a mature market for offshore IT outsourcing. And the growth is expected to continue: Everest predicts that China will rake in nearly $10 billion by 2015 and remain a viable option for IT leaders seeking to cut labor costs for the next 13 years. According to Everest's offshore locations survey conducted earlier this year, China now ranks third in attractiveness to IT buyers behind India and the Philippines. Read more...
TUI Travel on how the cloud can bring order to international IT
For global companies, running the IT of subsidiary businesses based hundreds of miles away is no mean feat.
The Accommodation and Destinations department of international travel group TUI Travel - whose brands include Thomson and First Choice - relies on 22 joint ventures across the globe, leaving its IT department with the challenge of how to manage the myriad systems spread between each office.
According to Greg Garrison, IT strategy director with TUI Travel, managing such a diverse infrastructure remotely carries financial, reputational, technical and organisational risks.
"We now have 20 different finance systems around the world, with multiple instances, so we have a tremendous landscape of IT and investment and complexity to maintain from the central office," he told the recent SAP Sapphire Now conference. Read more...