With IT skills shortages affecting more than 30 percent of companies worldwide, and at its worst in the UK for more than a decade, it has never been more difficult for companies to secure the right skills and support to sustain their businesses, says Halian’s Managing Director, Levon Antonian.

Two recent reports – from the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) and the National Computing Centre – highlight the downturn in available IT skills and its impact on organisations needing to manage upgrades and technological change to stay ahead.

According to the ITGI survey 38 percent of companies worldwide are struggling to find the IT staff they need. But the right people are out there – the challenge is knowing where to find them. 

“Buying in a resource management service can be the answer to any business whose IT function is suffering from a shortfall in key skills sets,” said Antonian.

Halian specialises in Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and Microsoft services technology and maintains a database of suitably qualified IT staff with verified, top-level experience. Working for some of Europe’s international blue chip companies means the company can attract the best people and maintain a pool of talent that can be deployed wherever clients need them.

“We don’t just place staff into a particular service role or project and walk away,” added Antonian. “A dedicated Resource Manager keeps tabs on every ongoing aspect of the assignment to create a self-funding operation that merges seamlessly into the business and supports it at all levels.”

Halian has recently completed a key managed resourcing project for a global bank based in Belgium to provide multi-level 24/7 support for its Sun Solaris platform. This crucial data centre function delivering services to the banks’ customers was failing due to poorly trained staff and constant manpower shortages.

The answer was a replacement Halian team which was in position within one month and headed by a Service Manager who is on-site twice weekly, to ensure all manpower issues are properly addressed in step with the bank’s technical requirements.

“Our solution pulled in resources from across Europe to get the right fit, including France, Belgium, Germany, the UK and Poland,” added Antonian, “and is typical of the way Halian can resolves IT resourcing challenges quickly, efficiently and with lasting benefits to our clients.”

More information on the IT skills shortage and the statistics represented in this article can be found at the National Computer Centre and IT Governance at http://www.ncc.co.uk/aboutncc/press_rel/IT_skills_shortages.cfm and also from the IT Governance Institute comments in a recent copy of Computer Weekly http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/02/20/229497/it-skills-shortage-affecting-third-of-companies.htm

Further reading
UK IT skills shortage worst for decade http://www.information-age.com/home/information-age-today/281356/uk-it-skills-shortage-worst-for-decade.thtml