Charting the Skilling Journey to Build the IT Services Talent of Tomorrow: Replacing the Commodity IT Services Role Definitions

IT roles and their definitions are evolving swiftly, driven by rapid technology advances and the need for stronger business orientation among IT teams. The expanse and nature of technical and non-technical competencies that constitute IT roles are undergoing a massive shift. Consequently, the roles of yesterday are redundant today, and the roles of today will be redundant tomorrow. The demand-supply gap for next-generation IT services skills has been a significant talking point for the IT industry over the past few years. Before the COVID-19 crisis, 58% of enterprises believed that they had insufficient internal resources to drive digital transformation programs. Following the pandemic, this proportion increased to 69% – with enterprises realizing that digital transformation is no longer a choice but a necessity, and that access to the right talent is key to executing the digital mandate.

The COVID-19 disruption is creating a new talent dynamic: while generic IT talent supply currently outstrips demand, the supply of talent for emerging roles remains constrained:

• About 75% of enterprises believe that, despite the pandemic, there will still be a shortage of talent for key roles across next-generation IT and analytics
• About 67% of enterprises believe that new skill gaps will emerge due to structural changes in businesses as a result of the current disruption
• The pandemic provides enterprises an opportunity to take stock of their IT strategies and requirements, and correspondingly build a robust skilling program focusing on emerging IT roles