A Step beyond Digital Transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
By: Joanne Boucher – Vice President, Ward Technology Talent
I recently read the below article and other than being a bit overwhelmed by it, also feel energized that Ward’s vision to “build communities that have a positive impact” makes sense more now than ever.
Inspiring Unfettered Innovation is ICTC’s most recent article looking at the significance of IoT (I recently heard this is not a hot topic anymore), as well as the impact on what has been coined the, Fourth Industrial Revolution.
It’s impact on business and where Canadian organizations are in terms of cloud computing compared with the U.S. and the global economy was a bit surprising.
Canadian organizations are lagging a bit in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” in areas of:
- The Sharing Economy
- The On Demand Economy
- The Significant Organizational Changes required over the next 10 years
- The Employee Skill Set Gap
In the policy paper, “Inspiring Unfettered Innovation“, it is apparent that it will be crucial for organizations to go about digital transformation from a technical perspective and perhaps more importantly educate leadership on the changing requirements for talent within those organizations.
As stated, “Real-time collaboration and integration will require advancement of technology skills like data literacy throughout the organization structure. It will also require strong soft skills in an integrated organization that operates like a living organism.”
No wonder it is getting more difficult to find the “right fit” when looking for both Contract and Full-Time resources.
During this time of transition, bringing in Contract Consultants to help bring existing staff to a higher technology competence whether for a SharePoint in the Cloud project, a higher level of Security awareness and best practices, ensuring applications are truly Mobile friendly or even looking at what internal applications could potentially be commercialized to name a few may be a wise choice to ensure you don’t get left behind.
“As more tasks are automated, the skills in-demand for the marketplace will continue to shift work from repetitive behaviours to higher orders of work, in particular in the area of technology. ICTC’s labour market forecasts outlines 182,700 job openings by 2019 due to increased demand for technology skills related to growth in A.I., data analysis, cloud computing, automation and IoT.”
Ward Technology is committed to building communities that have a positive impact as our primary vision for our company.
Ward has built the Mobile Learning Lab – in its 5th year with 2,000 members helping prepare and train the knowledge worker, the Women Leaders in Technology and the Technology Executive Breakfast series to address the skills gap in leadership, what are strategically important and pertinent issues for the technology leader.
Please feel free to share your thoughts – in my mind; there are 3 major initiatives here.
- Transitioning our current workforce to more digital roles – training and experiential learning
- Upgrading our current I.T. workforce to be able to embrace new technologies and methodologies
- Continue to over-haul our education system to meet the demands of business
Please feel to reach out if you have any questions especially around the current state of Technology Talent and what resources you may be looking for in the future to meet your business objectives. Whether we can assist or not or whether it makes sense for us to work together is yet to be determined.
Full article found here: http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b17cc37b5e9ab6e8ea8c95892&id=eb3997d6c5&e=fccd24e189
