IT execs in Australia must be wanting ahead to a giant yr in 2024, as ongoing transformation continues to redefine their roles inside their firms. Those that have certifications and capabilities in areas equivalent to safety, information evaluation and enterprise evaluation will probably be extremely sought out and valued by employers. Coupled with an ongoing abilities scarcity, these execs who spend the hassle to develop their skillsets in response to present developments will do nicely, whatever the broader financial situations.
Budgets are there for the suitable options
Based on Gartner, IT spending in Australia is anticipated to exceed $133 billion in 2024, which is a considerable enhance of seven.8% on the earlier yr (Determine A). This will probably be pushed most importantly by demand in software program, together with cloud companies, which is able to enhance by 12.8%.
Moreover, highlighting the influence of the abilities scarcity, demand for IT companies, together with managed companies, will see spending enhance by 8.2%. Organisations, which is able to wish to embrace innovation, will discover themselves turning to 3rd events if they will’t useful resource the options internally.
What this implies for IT execs
Upskilling goes to be central to profession growth for IT execs this yr. These that concentrate on gaining certifications in areas of scorching demand — particularly cloud applied sciences and synthetic intelligence — will probably be extremely valued by organisations.
SEE: Australian IT execs with the suitable certifications and expertise will discover some huge new alternatives open to them.
Moreover, it is a good yr for IT execs to contemplate shifting into managed companies and growing an understanding of how organisations throughout a spread of sectors function.
Digital companies will dominate company mindsets
Australian organisations used the disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic to make investments closely in digital innovation. These investments at the moment are beginning to bear fruit; as throughout cyber safety, cloud platforms, information and analytics and software modernisation, there’s now maturity that’s resulting in superior know-how options and new income streams.
Areas equivalent to e-commerce, on-line marketplaces, FinTech and HealthTech are all now assembly the wants of consumers who’re digital natives and like to devour companies that means. In e-commerce, for instance, Australia is the Twelfth-largest market, and ranks forward of markets with a lot bigger populations, equivalent to Brazil.
What this implies for IT execs
With maturity, organisations and authorities our bodies alike wish to begin rolling out new digital companies. For instance, in 2024, the Australian authorities will launch Digital IDs after a number of years of laying out the groundwork.
IT professionals will must be ready to work in extremely agile environments the place the main focus will probably be firmly on leveraging digital know-how to launch new merchandise and deepen the shopper expertise.
Cyber safety will probably be a mad scramble for compliance
In late 2023, the Australian authorities unveiled its 2023-2030 Cyber Safety Technique, an formidable, far-reaching and transformative strategy to nationwide cyber safety that goals to take Australia from being liable to information breaches and loss to being a worldwide chief.
SEE: Cyber safety developments to observe in Australia in 2024.
This technique will lead to new insurance policies and areas for compliance, in addition to enhanced penalties for non-compliance, that means that cyber safety will probably be an space of enhanced danger for organisations. A few of the areas for motion over the subsequent seven years that may begin to see motion in 2024 embody:
- Efforts to reinforce public-private collaboration and mechanisms for cyber menace sharing and blocking.
- Renewed efforts to handle the abilities disaster by enhancing Australia’s cyber safety workforce and abilities pipeline.
- New nationwide frameworks to reply to main cyber incidents.
- Funding in group consciousness and sufferer help.
- Additional funding within the nationwide cyber safety ecosystem.
- Higher efforts to design and implement safety in new applied sciences.
Whereas that is geared toward enhancing cyber safety outcomes throughout the nation, organisations, and significantly small and midsize companies, are going to battle to maintain up with the fast motion that the federal government is making on this space.
What this implies for IT execs
Each IT skilled in each space ought to take the time to develop some degree of cyber safety competency. Organisations are going to look to their IT groups for management on this, and the speed of change signifies that all IT professionals ought to guarantee their cyber safety abilities and certifications are saved present and up-to-date.
The place IT execs ought to focus abilities growth
There’s an ongoing want for IT professionals to behave as a bridge between IT groups and the broader enterprise. As organisations rely extra closely on IT to ship merchandise and income streams, IT execs that higher perceive the broader function of IT inside the enterprise will probably be extremely valued.
SEE: Australian organisations wish to expertise as a service to fill abilities gaps.
Based on Hays, the highest 5 abilities for IT execs to concentrate on in 2024 are:
- Cyber safety: Organisations might want to grapple each with the proliferation of threats and the shifting regulatory surroundings.
- Full-stack growth: The demand for software modernisation, apps and digital software program will gas the necessity for full stack builders.
- Knowledge evaluation: In 2024, information evaluation abilities are going to be much more essential for making data-driven choices and improvements.
- Enterprise evaluation: Enterprise evaluation abilities are vital for making certain the alignment and success of IT tasks and initiatives.
- Cloud platforms: Cloud platform abilities are in demand for managing and optimising cloud companies and sources to enhance efficiencies as required capability scales.
IT execs are well-placed to climate the financial storm
Although the general financial system will doubtless proceed to face challenges this yr — Australia nonetheless has points with the price of dwelling, inflation and international macroeconomic situations — the IT sector, which may leverage know-how to mitigate a few of these challenges, ought to see a powerful yr. For IT professionals, there’s a lot to sit up for.
