IT overlooks talent amidst budget cuts

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IT directors are faced with a stark choice in the wake of the UK’s recession - cut back on costs or make fewer specific investments at the expense of skills, a new report has claimed.

This choice comes as over three quarters of IT staff said their budgets would be cut or frozen over the next two years, according to research from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

A series of EMA surveys conducted among 150 IT professional respondents revealed the majority (40 per cent) of IT staff expected to have budgets cut in the next two years.

Over a third (34 per cent) said budgets would only be frozen, while 26 per cent still expected to see their IT budgets grow.

But the report, published by workload automation specialist, UC4 Software, suggested that those tasked with cutting costs were overlooking skilled IT staff – at the expense of the business.

“Already this year, many organisations have shed thousands of IT jobs in a knee-jerk reaction to cut costs, completely overlooking the value of skilled IT staff to the business, said Alan Smith, UC4 senior vice president for UK and Ireland.

Smith was highly critical of what he called a “ham-fisted approach” that would ultimately stifle innovation. Instead he advocated workforce consolidation alongside the use of increased levels of automation.

“This method cuts costs and allows firms to retain talented staff,” he explained.

The report also found that levels of automation are rarely measured and are often underestimated in terms of calculating return on investment (ROI). This was despite the fact that over three quarters (77 per cent) of survey respondents stated that automation significantly improved data centre profitability and efficiency across the business.

“In this economic climate, making sweeping, ill-considered cuts can do serious damage to the business,” added Smith.

He argued that strategic investment in automation could break down complex workloads, reduce overnight batch processing flow, and increase productivity.

“Surviving the recession cannot be achieved purely on cutbacks - businesses need to innovate and invest in technology that can deliver long term benefits, efficiency and ROI,” Smith added.

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