industry news
Career progression and remote working are top priorities for women in tech
A recent survey from specialist professional recruiter Robert Walters and leading British job board Jobsite has found that remote working and opportunities for career progression are the top priorities for women working in tech in the UK .
Seventy-six per cent of women surveyed said that the opportunity to work remotely was important if companies want to retain staff long term . Dawn May , manager at Robert Walters , commented , ‘ Particularly among tech firms , the freedom to work remotely is becoming increasingly popular with professionals . The flexibility these policies afford staff is a powerful draw for top talent and employers should consider whether they can introduce or expand these policies within their own organisation to secure the best professionals .’
Seventy-two per cent of female tech professionals also said that opportunities for career progression were important to retaining top talent .
As part of a rapidly growing industry , professionals in tech are commonly in a position where career progression is possible . However , for many it is important that the opportunity to develop their career with an employer is clear , with defined goals as to what is required of them to achieve promotion .
Dawn May continued , ‘ As the UK tech industry continues to grow , employers are likely to face growing skills shortages . Attracting professionals and retaining them long term is a challenge managers will have to address if their organisation is to achieve sustainable growth .’
Seventy-two per cent of female tech professionals said that opportunities for career progression were important to retaining top talent .
Channel leaders positive about future growth of the industry
Almost half of channel leaders expect the channel to grow between now and 2020 according to research commissioned by Agilitas , a European innovator of customer driven inventory-as-a-service .
Carried out by independent research firm OnePoll , it marks the third part of Agilitas ’ ongoing insight on how the industry will evolve by 2020 .
Focused on finance , the research looked at the financial challenges the industry is set to face between now and 2020 .
Despite continued market disruption and uncertainty , a significant 47 per cent still expect the channel to grow , 27 per cent expect it to be a similar size , with 26 per cent less confident in the channel growing between now and 2020 .
The results are supported by Office of National Statistics research , suggesting that the technology industry has helped to drive GDP growth post the vote to leave the European Union .
The research also examined what channel contracts will look like , revealing that the majority agree that IT based revenue streams will be even more opex based by 2020 . IT services are expected to see the biggest contract shift from capex to opex ( 30 per cent ), followed by hardware sales ( 19 per cent ).
In addition , the channel leaders surveyed also revealed that they expect software and hardware support services to provide some of the strongest revenue streams in 2020 .
‘ The results of our research suggest that the channel will see significant movement to opex based support services in the next few years ,’ stated Agilitas CEO Shaun Lynn . ‘ A rise in support services and contracts moving to an opex model provides significant new revenue streams for resellers , managed service providers and independent IT providers alike .’
The research commissioned by Agilitas and carried out by OnePoll surveyed 100 senior level executives at leading IT resellers , managed service providers and independent IT channel firms , and marks the third in a series of quarterly investigations into the future of the channel .
More details are available in an industry report which can be downloaded from Agilitas ’ dedicated ‘ Channel in 2020 ’ section of its website here : http :// www . thechannelin2020 . com
March 2017 | 7