How to Not Get Redundant in the Ever-Changing World of IT

Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel popularised a concept called the “Moore’s Law” which basically states that every technology grows twice as big in every 18 months.

This exponential growth of technology is a boon for the end-users, as it transforms their lives. But for the technology provider, it’s a constant battle. 

In my relatively young tech company, which is half-a-decade old, I have seen a myriad of technologies going from popular to redundant in no time. 

Businesses at the same time, can’t settle for anything less than cutting-edge. Each new product or software release aims to push the bar higher in terms of cost and performance efficiencies. Why would anyone want to use something outdated? 

So, as an IT development company, how do you stay head to head with the latest advancements always? The core identifiable challenges are as follows;

• Updating Your Knowledge
• Updating Your Team’s Tech Skill
• Updating Your Hiring Priorities   

Let’s see how to meet all of them individually. 

Discover Trending Technologies 

In the tech world, a trend is created by the rate of adoption of technology rather than a #Twitter hashtag. More the takers of a specific technology, the quicker it advances as more developers want to work on it.   

Here a few ways to spot trending technologies:

• Tech Surveys

Firms like Deloitte and KPMG carry out tech surveys round the year. These surveys are a result of thousands of participating CTOs and developers which gives you an in-depth insight into the adoption of technologies. 

Below are the results from KPMG’s 2019 Technology Industry Innovation Survey and it clearly scores technologies based on benefits of adoption.

Key results indicate that;

1. IoT is a clear winner and is currently #1 on the list. 
2. RPA or Robotic Process Automation has jumped from 9th rank to the 2nd rank. 
3. Blockchain is witnessing a wider adoption while AI has been demoted by a rank. 

• Skill Demand

For any industry, the demand for skills is a descriptive marker of the technologies being adopted in the industry. LinkedIn’s report on The Hard Skills Companies Need Most in 2019 suggest the following. 

1. Cloud Computing 
2. Artificial Intelligence
3. Analytical Reasoning

It’s safe to conclude that the growth in cloud computing and artificial intelligence can’t be overlooked. Businesses are looking for professionals to leverage these three skills, which means you need to start including them in your offerings.

Make Upskilling and Reskilling Easier for Employees

Upskilling is the answer to upscaling your business growth. From a business owner perspective, if your employees have outdated skills, it’s your loss first and then their’s. 

You can make upskilling and reskilling easier for them with the following suggestions. 

• Microlearning

You would not want to scare your employees by introducing a Data Analytics lecture on Saturdays, but small 10 minute lectures may just work. 

Microlearning focuses on ingesting information in small packets, rather than gulping down large mouthfuls. You can teach short lessons, that can be packed in a short video and let employees use them in day-to-day scenarios. 

Here are 10 Microlearning Websites to go to! 

• Hire an Expert

Employees learn the fastest when there’s a senior in the team to guide and shape their learning. You can achieve this in multiple ways. One could be hiring an expert for training employees once a week with demonstrations. 

Or you can hire your next team lead with the expertise you desire your other employees to obtain.  

Distributed Teams 

The thing with the rapid growth of technology is that it doesn’t allow you to change your company methodologies as freely. If you have mastered the development of Android Apps, you can’t expect everyone to shift to iOS in a month. 

In such a case, one answer could be a distributed team.

It’s hard to hire professionals with specific skills in volumes. Similarly, it’s hard to extend your tech offerings beyond a certain benchmark. So what do you do when you get projects that don’t currently meet your skill portfolio? 

You hire professionals from remote locations. Remote working is a fast emerging trend and a pretty useful one. You can fill skill gaps quickly by hiring experts for short term contracts with ease. 

If you see a tech skill towering over the others, you can then alter your hiring strategy accordingly to meet it in-house. 

Conclusion

The tactics have helped us dodge the sharp ups and downs of the tech world safely and we believe they’ll help you too. As a technology developer or an IT company, the challenge is to offer the latest while maintaining the internal functioning properly. 

At the core, It’s the CEO’s job to make the required shifts in time and manage change in the organization unobtrusively!