Cloud-based business solutions are now an intrinsic part of enterprise architecture as organisations move from “cloud adoption” to “cloud maturity” with their ICT strategies.
More than 90% of IT leaders surveyed by “A Cloud Guru” (ACG) expect to expand their usage of cloud services over the next 1-3 years. The need to meet evolving business challenges puts pressure on ICT teams to more quickly develop and deploy solutions to meet the demand. According to the “PwC 2021 CEO Global Survey,” 72% of Irish CEOs cite a lack of skills as one of the threats to their organisation’s growth prospects. According to Eurostat, Among the EU Member States, Ireland and Belgium presented the highest proportion of enterprises employing ICT specialists, with 30 % each.
As ICT operations are faced with these challenges, attracting and retaining the right expertise and getting access to the skills needed to deliver on key projects is getting more difficult. Apart from hiring, there are two basic choices facing project teams to deal with the challenge, upskill or outsource (in full or part).
Upskilling may deliver longer-term benefits in terms of institutionalising the skillset within the company and aligning the skills requirement with the ICT strategy, but it takes time. According to the Pluralsight 2022 Tech Forecast, “learning in the cloud is fundamentally different from traditional upskilling and frequently requires developing more specialised expertise. The complexity of learning in the cloud continues to drive top skills gaps today.”
There is also the added risk of losing resources to other employers. COVID has educated the workforce, and employers, about the flexibility and improved productivity that can be realised through remote working. FindStack.com has noted that 16% of the companies in the world are now 100% remote and that 85% of managers believe that having teams with remote workers will become the new norm. This means that location is no longer an obstacle to employment.
No matter the level of confidence with upskilling, if the project requires skills that are not there yet or activities that are not carried out internally on a regular basis (for example Digital Transformation involving Microservice development), then a risk mitigation strategy can be to bring in external expertise comfortable in dealing with the technology challenge. This will ensure consistency in the project deliverable being to best practices while also providing the assurance of an external expert in the subject matter area.
There are a number of ways to approach getting the right skills to deliver your projects:
- Full Outsource:
In this model, you select a supplier who is tasked with delivering a set of requirements against a scope, both from a technical, project management, and quality assurance perspective. - Technical Outsource:
Here you retain the ownership of the scope and requirements as well as the project management, opting to instead contract the expertise for delivery. - Team Augmentation:
In this approach, you have internal expertise, just not enough or in the right space. Here you choose to temporarily expand your team to support the project needs.
The main distinction between the three types is ownership of responsibility and management of risk. In the first model, you are outsourcing the ownership and responsibility, but should not underestimate having to determine where the lines of demarcation are in that ownership and responsibility. Internal management and governance are still required. A successfully outsourced project will reflect careful attention to managing the outsourced aspects in a collaborative way. The other two models are more about accessing the right level of technical expertise and how best to do this to suit your organisation’s needs.
Aspira is a leading Technology Resourcing provider assisting our clients to build quality teams both on a permanent and contract basis. We are available to provide an unrivaled level of service to find your team the right skills for your project’s success.
Get in touch with us today to fulfill your resourcing needs!
Jason Boyle – Director of Operations
Jason is the Director of Operations at Aspira. He works with a highly motivated team of business leads to drive business growth, increase operational efficiencies and continue to deliver on our exceptional customer experience.
