After a slow two years, IT spending is picking up again. Projects are being restarted and this is driving demand for IT consultants across the board. Both large and small consultancies are being used to help companies get their shelved technology projects up and running quickly, because consultants can help companies overcome their lack of permanent IT staff.
Typically consultants working on projects for smaller companies will require more hands-on programming skills, while consultancies working on projects in larger companies will need to focus on quality assurance issues. This is to ensure that the projects they are working on meet quality guidelines.
Smaller consultancies also often focus on a specific skill set, which can make recruiting properly qualified staff a headache. For example, Sumil Karayi, CEO at Windows consultancy 1E, says his company has severe problem finding the specific Windows skills his firm requires.
"There is a shortage of skills. We need strong Microsoft Windows skills and we have a tough time recruiting," he says. "This reflects a general issue in education. There are no vocational courses that are any use. University IT courses have no bearing in the real world."
Karayi says despite IT being fundamentally critical to how business operates, the UK fails to take the skills seriously enough. This is compromising the success of IT projects which often fail because of this lack of training in core skills. "IT being as important as it is, the government should back a proper engineering qualification and offer backing for universities to do more vocational training," he says.
"Universities need to work closer with a wider range of industry," adds Karayi. "They only work with the larger companies, but this often just covers high-level disciplines such as business process engineering - so when it comes to a specialised skill such as Windows administration they are just clueless." Karayi says the IT industry should use the engineering apprenticeship approach that once served industry very well.
The technology skills most in demand for IT projects have remained fairly static over the past couple of years and include the usual suspects such as SQL, Unix, C++, C#, .Net and J2EE, internet and web, security, Windows 2003, Windows XP, Cisco and Oracle.
David Pye, MD at Spring Technology Staffing Solutions, says: "There has been an increase in demand for skilled consultants over the last nine months but not a change in the nature of demand. Organisations are now more committed to spending on projects and hiring the staff and consultants that they need."
Angelique Wong, contracts team leader at Capita Resourcing, believes a distinction is starting to emerge in between skills required for consultants working on outsourcing contracts and those working directly for the business. "General desktop support is a big skills requirement," she says. "Many companies are outsourcing their helpdesk and infrastructure and they need people to handle that." On the other hand, consultants hired to work directly for companies will typically be working on applications development rather than infrastructure support.
In addition to technology skills, there is continuing demand for consultants with project management skills across all sectors and company sizes. "Companies have shelved projects but now need to bring them forward," explains Wong. "This often involves getting in an interim project manager to run the project to work with the overall programme manager."
Barbara Greenway, MD at Parity Training, says much of the demand for project management skills is being driven by government projects. This is boosting the popularity of Price 2, which is the dominant project management methodology in the public sector.
Although the basic technical skills are remaining fairly static, the breadth of skills that consultants require is on the up. "There is increasing evidence that programmers and developers are being required to have more business skills," says Pye. "Previously this was only a requirement for higher-level staff or consultants but all workers are now being required to have a business understanding. This includes knowledge such as legislation changes and other purely business issues."
"Business are trying to cut out the Accenture-type consultant that sits between the technical and the business by trying to make the technical people more versed with the business," agrees Capita's Wong. "Developers need to move up the value chain if they don't want to see their jobs being outsourced."
"In the past 12 to 18 months there has been an emphasis on pure technical skills for contractors, which has essentially involved collecting certs," continues Wong. "But now companies are starting to look at getting more value out of their consultants and expect them to have more of an understanding of the business requirement."
In particular consultants are being asked to have sector-specific skills. Consultants working in banking, for example, would be required to be familiar with financial software, integration skills and relevant legislation.
"At all levels there is a requirement for IT consultants to be more people-friendly," says Parity's Greenway. "Some companies are requiring their consultants to be accredited, for example the ISEB [British Computer Society Information Systems Examinations Board] consultants skills course. This will help them find customers, win work and study the different methodologies they require."
IT consultants can stay ahead of the game by keeping an eye on external sources such as the trade press and organisations such as IT Skills Research.
One current shortage, according to Spring Technology Staffing Solutions' Pye, is of testing skills, such as software testing, user acceptance testing and good programme manager and project managers.
Consultants who are keeping track of these trends would be able identify these future needs and get the appropriate training required in good time.
