Career success ahead for graduates with both IT and business skills

Graduates who have both business and IT skills are highly sought after and are seen as having the potential to make a dramatic difference to the performance of IT departments, according to a report by the management and IT consultancy Xantus, published last month.

Xantus found that almost half of the UK’s top chief information officers (CIOs) believed key skill shortages within their IT departments were costing more than 10 per cent of departmental productivity, while almost all the rest agreed that shortages had some effect on performance. This represents a collective annual cost to organisations of tens of millions of pounds.

The report, Supporting Business – the CIO Challenge, found that 96% of CIOs felt there was a need to strengthen the business relationship and management skills of their IT staff, but 93% said these skills were hard to find.

‘Traditional’ IT skills such as strategy and architecture were still seen as critical, but 43% said these were still hard to find. There were also marked shortages of soft skills, with good leadership and communication skills particularly in demand.

Steve Watmough, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Xantus, commented, ‘For most organisations, IT is a critical part of the core infrastructure, so CIOs recognise that IT decisions are strategic for the whole business and not just their department. Critically, they need teams around them that also recognise their strategic importance and have the skills to be able to articulate and deliver this.’

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Posted by Alison_TARGETjobs on 2 September 2010

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