It is worth considering for a moment, in these times of uncertainty, the business sectors that are critical to organisations. Which services and the staff that support them MUST they keep whatever happens?
I've experienced recessionary markets before and have thrived and grown divisions by understanding which services are mission critical for our clients. We know that the IM (Infrastructure Mgt) software sector will always tend to prosper during tighter times when IT spend will steer towards necessity and business imperative applications.
Enterprise software products have become so embedded into the IT infrastructure of most large organisations, that in many cases it has become almost unthinkable from a “commercial sense” standpoint to rip them out and start again. Many have been implemented for so many years and been constantly tweaked into bespoke applications that they are almost impossible to replace without starting from scratch. The cost of implementing an Enterprise wide system usually runs into many millions of pounds once installed, therefore it is a brave CFO/FD that signs off a 'ground-up' application change. During more frugal times the likelihood of considering such change is drastically reduced too.
Put simply, Enterprise software players such as Oracle, SAP, HP, IBM, etc. have a stranglehold on their legacy client base and through fairly active acquisition activity during the last 5 years, all have a suite of niche software offerings with cutting edge software applications within their portfolio. The industry currently wants/needs them as these offerings generate efficiency savings. It is these niches where the higher margin 'consultancy rate' business can be found.
The majority of IT staffing agencies shy away from here due to lack of knowledge/being out of the generic comfort zone and therefore where there is less competition that good quality business can be found currently. Service Mgt, Asset Mgt, Business Technology Optimisation, Intelligent Infrastructure Mgt, Storage etc. are all hot areas, as is the use of ITIL methodology standards to implement into these areas.
The Enterprise software vendors tend to follow an upgrade path that usually renders earlier versions of the software as unsupported after a new version is released. This forces the End User Client into an upgrade path/migration that will generate a need for implementation & development/testing resource to fulfill for example if SAP release a module of their software at v3.x, then it is highly likely that any of their install base using v1.x will be offered a preferential deal by SAP to upgrade to v3.x or take the risk of running an unsupported v1.x - which when running business critical Enterprise apps. is not really an option) Staffing business operating within one of these niches would be well advised to watch their chosen software vendor closely to monitor what new software deals are done (usually publicised on websites, in the trade journals, or simply monitored by keeping close to sales people in organisation), as sitting behind this will be implementation resource needs for sure.
It strikes me that all recruiting companies undertake an element of “Mission Critical” work for their clients and that it would be worth each company brainstorming individually which parts are likely to be uniquely busy to their division next year and hence worth giving extra time effort and focus to. Compliance and Risk Management seem to be extremely busy at the moment and so is BPO, as outsourcing drives efficiency, leading to cost savings in these increasingly frugal times.
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