[July 15, 2014] |
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Mid-year IT "Reality Check": Budgets Still Lagging Behind Original Expectations; Full-Time IT Headcounts Decrease
HANOVER, Md. --(Business Wire)--
TEKsystems (News - Alert)®, a leading provider of IT
staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services,
today released the results of its quarterly IT "Reality Check," a survey
that compares current market conditions on the state of spending, skill
needs and impact areas originally reported on in the company's Annual
IT Forecast released in November 2013. The most recent survey
represents the views of 240 IT leaders, including CTOs, IT vice
presidents, IT directors and IT managers as of June 2014.
Key highlights from the survey include:
Budgets Have Settled at Decreased Levels; Most IT Departments Are
Still Able to Meet Business Demands
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Budget increases continue to be less than originally expected.
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Heading into 2014, 62 percent of IT leaders expected their IT
budgets to increase. At the end of June 2014, just 47 percent
reported this to be the case, the exact same percentage reported
at the end of March 2014.
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Heading into 2014, 26 percent of IT leaders expected their budgets
to stay the same. At the end of June 2014, 37 percent reported
this to be the case, nearly the same percentage reported at the
end of March 2014 (38 percent).
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Heading into 2014, 12 percent of IT leaders expected their budgets
to decrease. At the end of June 2014, 16 percent reported this to
be the case, nearly the same percentage reported at the end of
March 2014 (15 percent).
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Findings: Budgets have not met the originally anticipated
increased levels. Fifteen percent of IT leaders who originally
anticipated increases now report they expect their budgets to stay
the same (up 11 percent) or decrease (up 4 percent).
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IT leaders remain confident in their department's ability to
satisfy business demands.
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Heading into 2014, 66 percent of IT leaders were confident in
their IT department's ability to satisfy business demands. At the
end of June 2014, 73 percent reported this to be the case, nearly
the same percentage reported at the end of March 2014 (72 percent).
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Heading into 2014, 21 percent of IT leaders expressed a neutral
view toward their IT department's ability to satisfy business
demands. At the end of June 2014, 14 percent reported this to be
the case, nearly the same percentage reported at the end of March
2014 (15 percent).
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Heading into 2014, 6 percent of IT leaders lacked confidence in
their IT department's ability to satisfy business demands. At the
end of June 2014, 13 percent reported this to be the case, nearly
the same percentage reported at the end of Mrch 2014 (12 percent).
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Findings: Despite lower budgets, the higher level of confidence
expressed in IT staff's ability to satisfy business demands has
not shifted since the end of March. This steady and relatively
high level of confidence by IT leaders to meet objectives
indicates alignment between IT departments and business areas.
Most Impactful IT Trends Remain Rock Solid
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Throughout the first half of 2014, mobility, security, business
intelligence / Big Data and cloud computing ranked in the top five
initiatives having the largest impact on organizations. Mobility and
business intelligence / Big Data have traded spots between No. 1 and
No. 3, security has consistently maintained the No. 2 spot, and cloud
computing has ranked either No. 3 or No. 4.
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Since the beginning of 2014, VoIP / Unified Communications (News - Alert) (UC), open
source and gamification have ranked as the least impactful
initiatives. VoIP/UC has ranked No. 8 or No. 9, open source has ranked
No. 10 or No. 11 and gamification has ranked last at No. 12.
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In terms of volatility, the initiatives that fluctuated the most in
terms of impact were social networking (ranking between No. 5 and No.
10), bring your own device (BYOD) / consumerization of IT (ranking
between No. 7 and No. 10) and data center consolidation (ranking
between No. 6 and No. 11).
Architects and Developers Continue to be Most Difficult to Hire; Help
Desk, Cloud and Social Media Emerge as Least Difficult to Hire
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Developers and architects remain the only positions to place
consistently in the top five most difficult positions to fill with
exceptional talent in the first half of 2014. Programming and
application development has ranked either No. 1 or No. 2, and
architects have ranked anywhere from No. 1 to No. 5.
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Help desk / technical support, cloud and social media have
consistently been the least difficult roles to fill with exceptional
talent. In terms of difficulty in filling positions, help desk /
technical support remained the eighth most difficult position to
secure, while cloud has ranked from No. 7 to No. 9 most difficult, and
social media has remained the least difficult position to fulfill.
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The positions that fluctuated the most in terms of difficulty of
finding exceptional talent were software engineers, project managers,
business intelligence / Big Data and mobile.
Full-Time IT Headcount Decreases; Temporary Hiring Stabilizes
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Heading into 2014, 47 percent of IT leaders expected increases in
full-time hiring. At the end of June 2014, 31 percent reported this to
be the case, slipping from the percentage reported at the end of March
2014 (35 percent).
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Heading into 2014, 44 percent of IT leaders expected full-time hiring
to stay the same as in 2013. At the end of June 2014, 56 percent
reported this to be the case, the same percentage reported at the end
of March 2014 (56 percent).
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Heading into 2014, 9 percent of IT leaders expected full-time hiring
to decrease. At the end of June 2014, 13 percent reported this to be
the case, an increase from the percentage reported at the end of March
2014 (9 percent).
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Findings: Hiring expectations for full-time employees continue
to decline. Sixteen percent of IT leaders who originally anticipated
increases now report they expect their full-time hiring to stay the
same (up 12 percent) or decrease (up 4 percent).
Contingent IT Headcount Remains Consistent
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Heading into 2014, 46 percent of IT leaders expected an increase in
temporary hiring. At the end of June 2014, 37 percent reported this to
be the case, a slight uptick from the expectation reported at the end
of March 2014 (35 percent).
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Heading into 2014, 43 percent of IT leaders expected temporary hiring
to stay the same as 2013. At the end of June 2014, 54 percent reported
this to be the case, the exact same percentage reported at the end of
March 2014.
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Heading into 2014, 11 percent of IT leaders expected temporary hiring
to decrease. At the end of June 2014, 9 percent reported this to be
the case, representing an increase in the use of temporary work from
the beginning of the year and the end of Q1 (also reported at 11
percent).
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Findings: Although down from original expectations at the beginning of
the year, the hiring of temporary workers has experienced a slight
increase since the end of Q1. This indicates temporary labor may be
supplementing the slower growth in hiring full-time employees.
"IT leaders seem to have settled into a pattern where they recognize
they will not see the budget increases they expected, yet they remain
confident in their ability to satisfy demands. This indicates a closer
alignment between business and IT in which business initiatives, their
impact and priority level are clearly communicated to IT, allowing
leaders to use their budget effectively," said TEKsystems Research
Manager Jason Hayman. "Additionally, it seems as though organizations
are turning to temporary hiring to offset the decrease in expected
full-time hiring. This points to the need for organizations to build
stronger workforce planning strategies that encompass the ebb and flow
between full-time and temporary hiring impacted by the realities of an
ever-changing business environment."
TEKsystems' Jason Hayman is available for additional commentary. For
more information about the survey or to schedule an interview, please
contact Rick McLaughlin at [email protected].
About TEKsystems®
People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At
TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT
professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and
Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to
help our clients achieve their business goals - while optimizing their
IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent
management expertise and IT services to help our clients plan, build and
run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of
quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and
take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there.
TEKsystems. Our people make IT possible.
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