Are You Keeping Up with IT Trends in the Marketplace?

According to a survey released last week by Robert Half Technology, seven out of ten Chief Information Officers (CIOs) said their companies will invest in information technology initiatives in the next twelve months.  Atop the list of projects they expected to invest in were:

43% in information security

28% in virtualization

27% in data center efficiency

26% Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)

26% software as a service (SaaS)

The survey involved 1,400 CIOs from companies across the United States with 100 or more employees. (Multiple answers were permitted — which is why the total adds up to more than 100%.)

A survey like this is good to know, for a number of reasons.  Among them: it gives you something to benchmark your organization against.

Ask yourself:  is your company staying abreast of what’s possible with newer IT solutions?  Even 24 months can change the IT landscape considerably.  Newer technologies may deliver benefits you didn’t realize you could achieve within your budget.  For example, if you or those in your organization don’t recognize terms like “virtualization” and “SaaS” — or if they are vague — devote some effort to getting up to speed.  They could deliver cost-effective benefits that were out of reach several years ago.

Staying up on IT trends is also a way to stay competitive.  Chances are, the Robert Half survey is representative of at least some of your competition.  If your competition is investing in certain areas – you would want to know that.  And more than just know WHAT they are investing in, it should trigger you thinking WHY they plan to invest in these IT areas. Do they expect to be able to drive cost out due to improved efficiencies?  Will they be able to jump on new marketplace opportunities more quickly and nimbly because of these technologies?  It’s valuable to know how others are innovating, so that your company does not fall behind the marketplace.

There are many other ways to track IT trends for decision-making purposes, in addition to a CIO survey.  I’d like to cover one more trend-spotting method:  following IT employment trends.

For instance, at Simply Hired.com, a search engine for jobs, you can use the Trends tool to map out employment trends for various terms.  I chose an IT concept that is growing in popularity over the past year:  cloud computing. I wanted to see whether cloud computing is just a trendy term, or is actually growing as an IT architecture and deployment strategy.

As you can see, jobs requiring skills in cloud computing are up 224,337% since August of 2007 (as of this writing).   That’s a large jump – evidence that organizations are staffing up for cloud computing.

Is a tool like the Employment Trends tool a definitive answer?  No, of course not.  It’s just one small bit of information.

But then, that’s how business in general works.  You rarely have 100% of the information you’d like for every decision.  Marketplace signals may be weak and partially obscured by noise.

I’m not suggesting you run with the herd and implement a particular technology just because others are doing it.

But by keeping your ear to ground as to how others are investing in IT and the IT skills they value, you can stay attuned to the full range of options for innovating in your company’s IT systems.