Demand from the big outsourcing suppliers for
experienced, qualified IT staff with management skills has risen
over the past year.
Perot Systems and EDS are among the firms recruiting heavily
after winning large contracts, while others, such as Accenture and
Capgemini, are hiring at a slower pace, recruitment agencies
reported this week.
Much of the demand is for senior IT staff with the skills and
experience needed to take over the running of major projects, said
Paul Smith, managing director for offshore software at recruitment
firm Harvey Nash.
"Firms are looking for people with professional qualifications,
people with a very strong programme management background. People
who have worked and managed similar sized projects, with strong
client relationship skills, and obviously people management," he
said.
Traditional technical jobs have been replaced by jobs that
require both the technical knowledge and management skills, said
Andy Lord, director of ReThink Recruitment. Demand for technical
architects is particularly strong, he said.
"A technical architect used to be someone who lived in the back
room and was very introverted and technology focused from concept
to delivery. They now lead the technology team in the
implementation and they are much more customer focused."
The major outsourcing suppliers are demanding similar technical
skills - a mixture of Unix, Windows and mainframe skills, creating
pressure that is pushing up salary rates, said Lord.
"Firms like BT, Fujitsu, CSC, Capgemini and EDS are all looking
for the same skills. It has hiked the price of the individual and
it has become quite a transient market. People are being headhunted
and offered £10,000 or £15,000 more than their existing salaries,"
he said.
Richard Herring, director at Volt Europe, said that experienced
project managers who have gained additional qualifications were
being snapped up by the outsourcing specialists.
"The best mix is where you have a career project manager who has
invested in their career," he said. "They have combined project
management and project control methodologies such as Prince with a
quality of service qualification such as ITIL."
Matt Staley, recruitment services manager at Fujitsu Services,
said the firm had 300 IT vacancies. The company is looking for
senior management consultants who are business-focused rather than
technology-focused, project managers, and test and validation
specialists.
"We are doing an awful lot of recruiting on the back of some
successes we have had over the past two years. We literally have
hundreds of vacancies. Although we are filling vacancies quickly,
the demand is huge," he said.
Robert Morgan, director of outsourcing consultancy Morgan
Chambers, estimated that demand for IT staff from the outsourcing
specialists is up 5% this year overall. But it is concentrated in
large deals, he said.