Sam Baillie, from IQ Tech, is one of InterQuest’s in-house experts across critical technologies affecting enterprises. She discusses the sector’s current trends, most in demand skills, biggest factors impacting technology and how these all impact the evolution of IQ Tech.

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WITH SAM BAILLIE

HOTTECHTRENDS THE

WHAT IS THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE IN THE TECHNOLOGY MARKET?

I would describe the technology market as fast paced and dynamic; it’s very much a buoyant recruitment market. Mainly from acquisitive companies where they’re recruiting key solution developers, infrastructure professionals and then aligned to that, skilled business analysts and very much commercial project managers to oversee that.

Some of the hottest trends in the technology market place are within the Microsoft technology stack. Related technologies to that are C# and .net, which are used for development especially for web integrated solutions. So for the likes of ecommerce, B2B portals and web portals for example; it’s all very much centric to companies’ requirements to provide the solutions they need both internally as a business and also to their clients - whilst aiming to be in line and ahead of their competition.

I WOULD DESCRIBE THE TECHNOLOGY MARKET AS FAST PACED AND DYNAMIC.

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WHAT’S IN DEMAND RIGHT NOW?

In addition to the hot technologies I mentioned, open source technology, database, BI related technology and skills within SQL Server and Oracle, will all be in demand. Specialist infrastructure roles are key, especially now with increased use of cloud; Azure Solutions, infrastructure-as-a-service, storage, San, NAS and also systems such as Linux, which is an open source related environment – all of which are very much in demand. But if there was to be one huge obstacle that consistently creates demand for jobs it would be security; it’s always so important to be secure so naturally we are seeing a huge need for cyber security experts at the moment.

More specifically, looking at the latest employment stats, we can see that one in five employers state that they expect to see shortages in technical and engineering

job functions this year, meaning that employers will have to focus on both attraction and retention of employees to maintain the workforce they need. However, if everyone is looking to retain their highly skilled talent, it means less of these individuals will be readily available in the market, that’s where my team step in!

Sam Baillie, IQ Tech

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HOW HAS IQ TECH CHANGED SINCE YOU’VE BEEN HERE? That’s a really good question! I’m in my 11th year here and I wouldn’t say it’s been a change per se, more a continuous evolution. I’ve seen the company grow and I like to think I’ve been a part of that. That’s why I have been here so long, I’ve wanted to continue to be a part of that and provide my commitment and see real di�erences.

Naturally, available technology has advanced massively over the past 11 years, with that we have evolved both as an organisations and a team – our team has even doubled in size! It’s di�cult to single out key changes in IQ Tech, but communication is key to our evolution. I enjoy working with my manager and my colleagues, they’re very open with communication; they’re clear with the strategy of the company and share their vision to ensure that you can continue to do a good job. I think it’s this level of cooperation and openness that’s driving change within IQ Tech. Likewise, we strive to have the same open communication and relationship with all our contacts, it keeps us well informed and agile.

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WHERE DO YOU SEE THE TECHNOLOGY MARKET AND IQ TECH GOING IN THE FUTURE?

Technology is advancing at such a rate that current skill sets are finding it hard to keep up. I suspect that in 5 years there will be new technology and new experts in those technologies. I’d like to see IQ Tech continue to o�er the market place an excellent service proposition in both solutions and quality. I believe the technical market place in the future, certainly in the next three to five years, will continue to be buoyant and I think it will also be align to becoming more specialist. Clients nowadays are looking for cutting edge candidates. They want candidates that are at the top of their game and I believe you have to o�er a really strong service proposition to be aligned to that.

Lucky for us, we know the right people connected to the right places to stay ahead of the industry curve.

CLIENTS NOWADAYS ARE LOOKING FOR CUTTING EDGE CANDIDATES.

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ANY EMPLOYMENT CHANGES RECENTLY?

We have recently seen an increased demand across the Microsoft BI stack, with strong demand in both Microsoft and Java Developers. I believe that this is because we are working in a candidate led market, which is very competitive and IT is now centric to just about every business.

I think that the technology market is going to carry on getting busier. I have noticed significant changes in clients that are improving upon their recruitment process because the increased demand is causing timescale issues, which can only be resolved with a good recruitment process in place.

We have also seen huge demand uptake at ECOM, our web and digital technology practice, in skills such as UX specialists, digital marketers and project managers. Due to this increased demand IQ Tech have

recently taken on a new addition to the recruitment team to continue to work within the expanding sta�ngspace. As well as this we also have continual growth plans already set for the duration of the year in order to meet this demand.

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WHAT’S NEW IN THE TECHNOLOGY MARKET PLACE? Wow, well how much time do you have? There’s so much going on in the technology market at the moment by the time I finished talking about it there would already be new stu� to talk about! There’s a lot going on in ITSM at the moment, both ServiceNow and HP Service Anywhere are making great strides in the market, push notification marketing is looking very promising, BYOD, BYOW and wearable technology is really taking o� and artificial intelligence is having a huge impact in the way we think about optimising our technology. The future is certainly looking pretty bright!

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