Information Technology Support 2010 and Beyond: A New Strategy

With the retirement of the Baby-Boomers starting in 2010, there will be an overall drop in the workforce. Initial projections indicate a potential shortage in the United States of about 11 million positions at all levels in all fields. This shortfall will not be restricted to the United States alone. Europe and Asia will suffer from a similar shortfall due to their equivalent of retiring Baby Boomers. The Information Technology field being one of the largest fields of employment will be severely affected. To be able to maintain IT Data Centers and other IT Support Departments, a different strategy will be needed to be able to “keep the lights on”. Contrary to today’s fears that US jobs will be lost to outsourcing overseas, many of the outsourcing countries will have the same problems. To meet user needs in 2010 and beyond, the following strategy should be considered: 1. Determine the areas of operations and support that cannot be maintained with internal staff. 2. Identify vendors and consultants who can provide the required operational and technical support. 3. For each area of operations and support identify three vendors and consultants who can meet your requirements. 4. Create and approve a vendor list for your required services. 5. Negotiate support contracts with your approved vendors. For job seekers, the trend into the next decade will be a need for analytical types of staff and technical resources. Business Analysts, Data Analysts, Programmer Analysts, Project Analysts, and Systems Analysts, will be some of the positions that will be in high demand by many firms and consulting practices in 2010 and beyond. Consulting practices will be hiring many of these resources to fill contingency operational and support contracts. Unlike temp positions of the twentieth century which were mainly clerical office workers hired to fill short-term employee absences, the temp positions of the twenty-first century will be technical workers needed to fill short, intermediate, and long-term roles and responsibilities that cannot be hired. The contingent workers of the twenty-first century will be respected, serious, permanent roles on the employment landscape not like the temp jobs of the twentieth century. Contingent workers can be a career in itself in the future and may be the only way to fill jobs for years to come. Until 2010, the potential job seeker should get the technical training and develop the expertise to meet the new demand on the horizon.