Using IT services to drive digitization despite a shortage of skilled workers

Small and medium-sized enterprises in almost all sectors are under great pressure to digitise. This is because digitisation is an important element in being able to survive in international competition, as the SME portal of the Swiss Confederation formulated. However, as it says there also, human resources are a necessary resource for the digital turnaround. However, there is often a lack of qualified specialists. Nevertheless, companies do not have to put their digitalisation projects on hold - on the contrary!

The IT skills shortage in Switzerland has worsened over the past year. IT professions are in second place in the 2021 skills shortage ranking by Stellenmarkt-Monitor Schweiz at the Sociological Institute of the University of Zurich and Adecco Group Switzerland. At the same time, the country has become less attractive for IT talent, according to a survey by the job platform Jobcloud and the Boston Consulting Group. This means that the shortage of IT professionals could become even more acute. In light of this, finding IT experts is a difficult, costly endeavour, as salaries for tech talent have risen to levels few employers can compete with, according to the Jobcloud survey. But there is a viable and obvious way out: outsourcing IT services.

Consulting and managed services on the rise

Many companies have recognised the potential and are implementing their plans with the help of external consultants and cloud service providers. This has been confirmed by the market researchers at Gartner. They predicted that the IT services segment - which includes consulting and managed services - will record the second-highest growth in spending this year. Above all, spending on business and technology consulting will rise, probably by ten per cent, and the trend will continue to increase. The greater urgency and accelerated pace of change is widening the gap between companies' digital business ambitions and their internal resources and capabilities, according to Gartner. Cloud business in particular is expected to grow. Gartner expects the cloud market to be twice as large as the non-cloud market by 2025. The cloud is responsible for almost all of the 11 per cent spending growth in the enterprise software segment in 2022, it said, as companies focus on upgrading their software stack to software as a service for agility and flexibility.

Benefit from external IT partners

This is a useful approach. Because cloud solutions, for example from Google, are ready to use immediately. Companies can select which functions they need and use the most advanced technology without large initial investments. External IT service providers support them in orienting themselves on the market within a very short time and in finding the offers that fit their business models. In doing so, they can contribute a great deal of knowledge and experience. After all, they have in-depth specialised know-how and look after customers of the most diverse sectors and sizes on a daily basis. They take over the configuration so that the individual applications work together seamlessly, automation is possible and IT security is ensured when working in the cloud. Professional migration avoids work interruptions. In addition, they train the employees. The result: from the first day, they find their way around in the new working environment and use the tools according to their capabilities. Last but not least, external IT experts take care of the continuous optimisation of the IT with their know-how.

Our support and consulting packages fit companies with a wide range of needs like tailor-made suits. We support your IT operations in a highly flexible and modular way. In addition, as a Google partner, we are your contact for everything to do with the Google Cloud. You have access to a team of highly qualified specialists and certified Google Cloud Engineers, so that you can relieve your IT department. At the same time, the costs for our managed IT services are transparent and plannable.