The tech skills shortage is driving work for MSPs: CPA Australia

Australian companies will continue to contract MSPs and vendors for technology upgrades more than invest in in-house teams as the tech skills shortage continues to bite, according to a report by CPA Australia. 

According to the accounting body, 70 percent of Australian accouting and finance employees surveyed said that their organisation had a digital transformation strategy, and 47 percent said their organisation would increase investment or upgrade technology in the next twelve months.

Improving cybersecurity protections was an example of an upgrade that 34 percent of the Australian accounting and finance professionals surveyed said their organisation would invest in during the year. 

The need to improve customer experience was voted the biggest driver for technology investment by Australian respondents. 

Of the 820 employees surveyed from South Pacific countries, which includes Australia, “shortage of technology talent,” was the second most commonly voted barrier to technology uptake after "financial costs and low return on investment". The employees in the survey were from Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.

“Reflecting the strong global demand for technology and the consequences of growing business usage of technology, the second most frequently chosen barrier was a “shortage of technology talent,” the report read. 

The surveyed employees said that although their organisations had ambitious digital transformation targets, fewer said that their organisations would increase IT recruitment or in-house technical skills training than said their organisations would contract external support.

In Australia, 33 percent of respondents said their organisations would “seek professional advice from IT technicians or consultants,” and 31 percent said they would “work with technology companies or vendors.”

The report did not include in-house IT training or recruitment targets specific to Australia, but collectively, only nine percent of the Asia Pacific employees said their organisations would add technical expertise to senior management. Some 19 percent of the respondents said they would recruit employees with technical skills.

This is despite 35 percent saying their organisations would implement a digital transformation strategy in the next 12 months.

This could mean work for MSPs seeing as, collectively, 26 percent of the Asia Pacific employees said that they would work with technology companies or vendors and 24 percent said they would seek professional advice from IT technicians and consultants.

Data analytics and visualisation software, cloud computing and business intelligence (BI) software were the top three technologies that respondents expect their business to use more in the next 12 months, the report found. 

“Respondents that expect their business to grow strongly in 2022-23 are significantly more likely to expect to increase their use of blockchain or distributed ledger technology, robotic process automation, CRM software, AI and BI software in the next 12 months.”

At the upcoming CRN Pipeline conference, Korn Ferry APAC VP IT Services Bridget Gray will discuss the hotspots in the IT labour market, where to find staff and what to pay them.