Tag: IT

Government spends half its IT budget on outdated systems

Posted on August 6, 2021 by - News

A Cabinet Office report called Organising for Digital Delivery has found that the government spends half of its £4.7 billion IT budget patching out of date systems.

The report said that the UK government spends £2.3 billion a year on patching legacy IT systems, making up half of the £4.7bn it spends on IT each year.

The UK government could spend £13- £22 billion over the next five years on maintaining its outdated IT systems.

The so-called “technical debt” racked up by the government stems from its use of “obsolete technical platforms” using programming languages that are no longer widely supported.

Some IT systems fail to meet “even the minimum of cybersecurity standards”.

IT job market grows

Posted on February 12, 2020 by - News

Employers across the United Kingdom advertised 170,000 job openings for information technology (IT) workers in the fourth quarter of 2019.

According to an analysis of employment and labour data by CompTIA, The fourth-quarter figure for open core IT occupations represented a one percent increase over the Q3 2019 total and accounted for about 10 percent of the 1.7 million total job openings across the UK.

CompTIA senior director for research and market intelligence Amy Carrado said the quarter-over-quarter increase was modest, but it was counter to the typical trend of a hiring slowdown in the fourth quarter.

Manchester is best for IT

Posted on October 9, 2019 by - News

Trade association CompTIA has named Manchester as the best place in the UK to work in IT.

Its inaugural index ranked more than 200 UK cities based on the IT employment opportunities available, taking into account factors such as the number of IT postings locally, projected job growth and reported cost of living in travel to work areas.

Manchester was the top due to the “broad scope” of opportunities it offers, including career progression options and high quality of living, based on cost of living and job demand.

IT SMEs have head hunting problems

Posted on March 20, 2018 by - News

Head-hunting-Pictish-warriorThe latest Aldermore Future Attitudes report reveals that four in five (80 percent) of SMEs in the IT sector find it difficult to hire qualified staff members or keep existing talent in the company.

The study, which surveyed over a thousand business decision-makers across the UK, found that the most common concern for SMEs in the IT sector is hiring talented people (40 percent), with crucial employee positions often difficult to fill (24 percent).

Retaining good members of staff once they have been found is a concern for over a quarter of business leaders in the IT sector, with just under a third admitting to currently having a problem with a high workforce turnover. A quarter of companies in the IT sector find it hard to adequately develop employees who demonstrate great potential, and younger employees can be particularly difficult to keep on board (17 percent). A fifth says they have experienced an increase in staff leaving their business compared to a year ago.

Bosses in the IT sector say the most common motive is for a pay increase (22 percent), followed by a change in career (20 percent) and retirement (20 percent). Regarding where they then go, a third of their employees move to a larger company in a different industry, over a quarter (28 percent) land a job at a large organisation in the same sector and one in ten go to another SME in a similar industry.

Carl D’Ammassa, Group Managing Director, Business Finance at Aldermore, said: “It’s a job seeker’s market out there and this trend looks set to continue over the coming years. Talented workers within the SME industry can find new employment quite easily, with many individuals moving on when they feel they can get a better deal or could progress further and quicker in a different environment. Competition for the best industry talent has always been fierce, and business leaders need to put measures in place to ensure their companies are attractive places to work for ambitious employees.

“The best people can have a significant, positive impact on how that business performs, so therefore it is heartening to see that the majority of SMEs acknowledge that it is important to make an effort to keep talented people by offering a good work-life balance, flexible working, and valuable training. This is to be applauded, and many larger employers could learn much from their smaller peers about maintaining staff satisfaction.”

 

Executives fear skills shortage

Posted on February 23, 2018 by - News

skills-shortage-delays-building-25-11-2002A survey of tech executives has found that a third of them are worried about finding enough tech staff in the coming year.

The CompTIA survey found that a third think 2018 will be moderately more challenging than 2017 when it comes to recruiting new technology workers. Another 43 percent of executives say that  2018 will probably be just as bad as last year.

Graham Hunter, CompTIA’s vice president for skills certification in Europe and the Middle East, said that employer demand for tech talent was routinely outstripping supply and the year ahead will force more organisations to rethink their approaches to recruiting, training and talent management.

Tech firms face much competition for tech talent from other industries, and there is strong demand for tech workers is present among employers in manufacturing; professional, scientific and technical pursuits; human health and social work; and finance and insurance.

Postings for core IT jobs across the UK surpassed 290,000 in Q4 2017, accounting for 13 percent of all jobs posted – 2.3 million during the last three months of 2017. It also represented a 14 percent increase in core IT jobs postings from Q4 2016 to Q4 2017.

Amy Carrado, senior director, research and market intelligence, CompTIA said that for the full year in 2017 more than 1.3 million job postings for core IT positions were placed by UK employers, a six percent increase from the prior year. The number of IT workers in the UK also increased last year, “to an estimated 1.23 million”.

The top locations for IT jobs, based on the number of workers in 2017, include London, Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, and Manchester.

IT security market worth $170 billion by 2020

Posted on March 10, 2016 by - News

BouncerFoxFeatureThe IT security market will be worth $170 billion by 2020, which means growing by $100 billion from now.

India-based firm MarketsandMarkets says the 2020 total includes security technologies like data leak prevention, denial of service attack mitigation, and compliance, along with security services.

“MarketsandMarkets expects the global cyber security market to grow from US$106.32 billion in 2015 to US$170.21 billion by 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8 percent,” MarketsandMarkets said.

Gartner  said something similar its latest November figures predicted security spend pegged at $75 billion are reckoned be worth $91 billion by the end of the year. Big G said the security industry will be worth some $116 billion by 2019 with security services including consulting, hardware support, and outsourcing adding a further $73 billion by 2019.

Most of the cash appears to be being spend in North America  while significant revenue growth is expected from Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions. The most popular is expected to be managed security services.

 

IT professionals saved from recession

Posted on February 11, 2016 by - News

an-queue-at-a-job-centre-in-1924-pic-getty-images-762512302Beancounters working for the recruiter Randstad Technologies claim that IT professionals have survived the economic crisis better than other sectors and now earn more on average than… er, the beancounters.

Randstad Technologies analysed Office of National Statistics and professional industry data on every occupation in the UK, taking into account the aggregate wage bill for full-time staff between 2002 and 2014 and divided by its shoe size.

The total wage bill for full-time employees in IT jobs rose 82 percent from £17.4 billion in 2002 to £31.6 billion in 2014, reaching five percent of the total wage bill for all UK full time employees.

More than 400,000 people have taken on IT jobs since 2002.

Ruth Jacobs, managing director of Randstad Technologies, said: “The increasing demand for Tech has been the umbrella which sheltered the sector from the storm of the recession. As technology has become a larger part of our lives, the industry has grown dramatically, with 400,000 new full time jobs in just 12 years. The growth in the sector has been so significant it’s now responsible for five per cent of the total UK wage bill. But this rapid expansion means there is tough competition for Tech talent as employers want to find the right people for the right jobs.

“The demand for people will advanced IT skills will only grow in the future, as Britain will need 2.2 million digitally skilled workers by 2020 to match the sector’s potential. This means that if you are qualified for software developer jobs, data analyst jobs or network engineer jobs, it will be easier to find work, with almost no chance of being laid off long periods of time.”

Randstad said the average wage for tech professionals has fallen by 11 per cent, but despite this, they have still done better comparatively, with tech employees earning more on average than accountants.

Jacobs, added: “As technology has progressed, the costs associated with the industry have dropped exponentially in line with Moore’s law. This helps to explain why the average wage of Tech professionals has declined more than some other sectors. However, IT jobs still offer some of the highest average salaries in the UK, overtaking accountants.

“While the average salary figures have been boosted by the number of IT jobs in London, the growth of fin-tech jobs and IT security Jobs have helped the sector to do well compared to other industries.

German tech industry dragged into the 21st century

Posted on March 31, 2015 by - News

Hartmann_Maschinenhalle_1868_(01)Germany, whose industry has been relying on things to run the same way as they did before those World Wars, has suddenly woken up in the digital age and is a little worried about it.

According to Reuters big German companies have started teaming up with start-ups to shake up their conservative business culture and keep pace with a world increasingly dominated by nimble tech giants.

Most of the German blue-chips run along 19th century lines with only the youngest — SAP, founded less than 43 years ago.

In other Western countries the top 30 companies on the Nasdaq were set up in the 1980s or later and the fourth-biggest firm, Facebook, was established about a decade ago.

German government officials and company executives fear they could fall far behind if they cannot swiftly identify and adopt innovations in web and smartphone technology that have driven the success of Google, Apple and Amazon.

Metro, Bayer, Evonik, Merck KGaA and Deutsche Telekom are now investing in start-ups – seeking to gain digital expertise, as well as to embrace newcomers whose innovations could represent threats to their own businesses.

They have a long way to go, Investment in German start-ups more than doubled to $1.74 billion last year, this was less than the amount raised by Uber. US-based start-ups drew $49.39 billion.

Fewer than half of Germany’s top 500 companies have a comprehensive digital strategy, according to a study by Accenture.Only 11 percent use social media and only six percent cloud computing, the European Commission’s Digital Economy Index published at the end of February showed.

Healthcare firms Bayer, Merck and Boehringer Ingelheim, Deutsche Telekom and chemicals group Evonik, meanwhile, have all set up multi-million euro in-house venture funds. Deutsche Telekom has pledged to invest $542 million in Germany’s start-up scene over the next five years.

The German government has announced plans to try to promote startups. They include a pre-market web platform to connect young companies with investors.

However most say that there needs to be more venture capital investment in Germany and the scene needs to be more attractive in terms of taxation.

The other problem is that the Germans do not like investing in something which might go tits up.

 

Utilities start spending on IT

Posted on January 5, 2015 by - News

server-racksRestructuring and mergers are creating something of a boom in IT spending for utility companies in Western Europe.
That’s the conclusion of market research company IDC, which said a survey showed that the move demonstrates optimism in the sector.
Western European utility companies are taking steps to improve their maintenance and run operations, said IDC.  That in turn is allowing them to make cost savings and to use some of these cost savings to increase their IT budgets.
The utility companies are also outsourcing their IT, with 41 percent of their spending spent outside of their own organisations.
Close to two thirds of those budgets are decided by internal IT departments but the remainder of the spend is directed by separate business units.
Customer service, support and services are largely used as the criteria for their IT budget spends, said IDC.

 

Saudi to spend $37 billion on IT

Posted on December 23, 2014 by - News

Flag of Saudi ArabiaIncreased adoption of the hybrid cloud model by Saudia Arabian enterprises and organisations mean spend in the country on services and IT will hit $36.95 billion next year.

IDC said that of that spend, IT services will represent the biggest chunk as chief information officers (CIOs) begin to look to hybrid cloud systems.

Other areas which will drive the IT spend up include mobility, analytics and social networking, said IDC.  Abdulaziz Al-Helayyil, a regional director at the market intelligence compan, said: “The expanding use of applications, mobile devices, social media, and other technologies will result in an explosion of data within many Saudi organisations.”

That means many will also spend on storage infrastructure, data mining and analytics.

Saudi Arabia has a “smart city” initiative and government bodies, telecoms companies on others will look  to different methods to achieve their IT goals.

It’s estimated that there will be 16 million smartphones in the country by the end of next year, with a 28 percent in LTE device shipments.

Saudi Arabia has a polution of over 27 million people. Its estimated GDP for 2013 was $927.8 billion.

IT pros don’t want to live in America

Posted on November 25, 2014 by - News

Photo-02-Emigrantstationen-EllisIsland-NewYork-500A new study of the worldwide migration of IT professionals to the US shows a sharp drop-off in its proportional share of those workers.

The study used social media site LinkedIn to track the movement of professional people and is the first to monitor global migrations of professionals to the U.S.

Co-author Emilio Zagheni, a University of Washington assistant professor of sociology and fellow of the UW eScience Institute presented the study at the recent SocInfo conference in Barcelona, Spain.

While 27 percent of migrating professionals among the sample group chose the U.S. as a destination in 2000, in 2012 just 13 percent did.

The biggest drop was among those in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, from 37 to 15 percent.

Instead, all the brains are going to Asian countries which saw the highest increase in professional migrants worldwide, attracting a cumulative 26 percent in 2012, compared with just 10 percent in 2000.

Australia, Oceania, Africa and Latin America also saw an uptick in their share of the world’s professional migration flows.

The Land of the Free attracted 24 percent of graduates from the top 500 universities worldwide in 2000, but just 12 percent in 2012.

The US is still the top destination for migrations, but the study indicated that was something that should not be taken for granted.

The study suggests numerous possible reasons for the proportional migration decline including the US’s Byzantine style visa system, a greater demand for professionals in other countries, fewer opportunities for immigrants due to the dot-com collapse of the early 2000s and the 2008 recession.

 

Malaysian IT uses forced labour

Posted on September 18, 2014 by - News

oliverMalaysian electronics companies are routinely using forced labour systems to get products to market, a human rights group claims.

The report is the result of a two-year study funded by the US Department of Labour and undertaken by Verité, a nonprofit organisation focused on labour issues.

More than 500 migrant workers at around 200 companies in Malaysia’s IT manufacturing sector were surveyed and one in three were working under conditions of forced labour.

Dan Viederman, CEO of Verité, said workers were lured to the company using deceptive adverts. The job looks good enough that they pay a broker to apply, often borrowing money from friends and family to do so.

When they arrive, their passport is taken by their employer and they’re threatened with deportation if they don’t work overtime. Since they are broke, and do not have a passport and with little knowledge of the legal process, they accept the increased workload.

The fees paid to brokers to obtain the overseas work are crippling and more than 90 per cent say that they pay them. Three quarters said they borrowed money to do so. More than half said it took more than a year of work to clear the debt, and they cannot leave Malaysia until it was paid.

Many of the factories were operated by subcontractors or suppliers to major brand-name companies, and Viederman said that all companies sourcing from Malaysia should audit their supply chain.

Companies should amend their codes of conduct for suppliers to ban the payment of fees to brokers and ensure workers are allowed to keep their identity documents when they arrive, he said.

The US Department of State said the situation in Malaysia had worsened in its annual report on human trafficking. The government there made “limited efforts to improve its flawed victim protection regime” despite assurances it would work to solve the problem.

UK biggest public sector IT spender

Posted on September 16, 2014 by - News

ukflagWhile the UK is the biggest IT public spender, growth is very slow.

That’s according to a report from IDC, which surveyed western European spending in the IT sector.

The big five western European countries – the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy –  represent over 75 percent of the $53 billion spent on hardware, software and IT services by the different government.  Over 50 percent of the spend takes place in local government.

IDC says that public administration and compulsory social activities are larges spenders within the sector.

It predicts that investment in pension administration, tax and revenue collection managment will grow more than investments in public safety and security.  Some areas, however, such as immigration and borders are attracting spends.

Germany will show the highest compound annual growth rate with a measly 1.2 percent, while Spain and Italy will suffer the biggest slump.

Tech sector outperforms rest of private sector

Posted on October 21, 2013 by - News

poundsAccording to new research from KPMG, the British tech sector has outperformed the rest of the private sector in terms of hiring and long-term outlook.

This is no new trend. KPMG notes that the tech sector has consistently outperformed the rest of the private sector over the last decade. There’s plenty of confidence, too. Growth expectations at tech companies are well above the private sector average.

KPMGalso introduced a new index to track job creation and growth and UK companies. The Tech Sector Purchasing Managers’ Intex keeps track of hiring and purchases – and it indicates that tech sector growth and output have been strong since the end of the recession. However, bigger outfits seem to be doing better than small tech firms.

Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 1

“Our new report Tech Monitor UK, the first of an ongoing series, reveals a number of key findings: importantly, it shows that the UK tech sector has generated solid rates of job creation over the last four years and that it has consistently outpaced other UK private sectors in creating jobs since the global financial crisis in 2008/09,” Tudor Aw, Head of Technology at KPMG said. “In terms of business outlook and confidence, we can take heart that tech companies in the UK are bullish about the next 12 months. Optimism is at one of the highest levels since data was first recorded in late 2009 and also continues the trend that tech companies are consistently more upbeat regarding hiring intentions than other UK sectors.”

The report also provides an interesting geographical snapshot of Britain’s thriving tech economy, which reveals that most companies are located in the South East of England and London. Nearly all are located near the M4, M3 or M25 and they have easy access to Heathrow and Gatwick.

“The findings of our report clearly highlight the link between investing in transport infrastructure and attracting businesses and therefore driving growth in the UK economy,” Aw commented.

SMT becomes first ExtraHop certified partner in Benelux

Posted on October 14, 2013 by - News

ExtraHop-logoExtraHop has selected SMT as its first certified partner for the Benelux region. SMT is a specialist in IT management with offices in Belgium and the Netherlands, with more than 100 large clients. 

Several technical teams from SMT have completed extensive training and are no certified to offer consultancy, sales and implementation services across the region. SMT will also demonstrate the ExtraHop platform at the Splunk Live! Event in Amsterdam on Tuesday.

“ExtraHop provides a perfect fit within our portfolio. It’s the first platform that effectively mines wire data in real-time, delivering business-critical operational intelligence across increasingly dynamic IT environments,” Michiel Toes, co-founder and Sales and Marketing Director at SMT said. “Moreover, ExtraHop’s wire data analytics are a perfect complement to Splunk, supplementing machine log data to provide total visibility into application and service delivery.”

ExtraHop is currently the global leader in real time wire data analytics for operational IT intelligence. Its latest products and services include the Persistent Monitoring Architecture, the EH8000 appliance for real time L2-L2 application transaction analysis and a new agentless Citrix VDI monitoring solution.

“IT environments are becoming more complex as virtualisation, cloud, and mobility take hold, and traditional sources of visibility, including log and agent data, are no longer sufficient to deliver crucial intelligence on their own,” said Owen Cole, VP of EMEA Sales for ExtraHop. “Wire data is a key source of insight into the performance, availability, and security of IT applications and services.”