City IT staff feel credit crunch

In-house IT costs too much, but senior staff are in higher demand

Low level city IT workers risk being priced out of the market

The combined effects of outsourcing, offshoring and the credit crunch may translate to scarce opportunities for entry-level financial IT workers, while prompting demand for senior staff managing compliance as firms look to cut costs.

The current economic climate could make running in-house teams too expensive and may slow down bringing products to market, Société Générale’s global head of investment banking services Philippe Robeyns told Computing.

“But there will be challenging opportunities for in-house IT professionals within financial services,” said Robeyns.

“We expect to see a consolidation of technologies supporting the financial IT industry, so people involved in managing the provision of these services, including outsourcing, should be fine,” he said.

But spending involved in external monitoring of outsourcing contracts can sometimes outweigh the benefits, said Marilyn Davidson, the director of Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo).

“Any trend for outsourcing will exacerbate the low uptake of IT careers,” she said.
“But while the increase of outsourcing in areas such as back-office systems takes away the opportunities at a lower level, it leads to demand for senior level IT staff to manage these projects.”

Though in-house outsourcing management functions are not new, there will be an increased attention to governance, which includes areas such as procurement, contract and service management, said David Roberts, chief executive of blue-chip user group The Corporate IT Forum.

“People need to understand what is being outsourced and be very good at relationship management ­ it is a complicated and complex job,” said Roberts.
“Given the reliance of the UK on financial services, there will be an immense demand for professionals within those areas, so it is possible that the industry will be creating new jobs or even re-training internal staff to meet that demand.”