4 Main Challenges Of Today's IT Service Providers

4 Main Challenges Of Today's IT Service Providers

It's not easy for today's IT service providers. Be it a smaller web agency, a company which does software implementations or even a freelancer.

All have their own big and small challenges to face. Here some of them.

1) Automation

Simple coding work and testing tasks were, at some point of time, the bulk of all the IT work out there.

You would find large teams of hundreds and hundreds of people doing mundane programming tasks or trying to find bugs inside a system manually.

These simple tasks are slowly but steadily removed by automation.

Button's, forms and even parts of applications can be created easily with the help of software tools.

The same goes for testing, where a full time tester was needed before, an automation tool will do the job.

2) Offshore and Nearshore Outsourcing

Offshore and Nearshore outsourcing can be an opportunity (for example for web agencies who can get support in their projects) but is also a challenge for other groups, like freelancers in the west.

Web and marketing agencies tended to give their work to local freelancers, paying 100 US Dollar and more per hour.

Now Offshore and Nearshore service providers are lined up to take these jobs at a fraction of the price. Some more information regarding this can be found in the dev.to article 10 Reasons Why Remote Web Development Is Better for Your Startup which was published recently by an Ukrainian IT services provider.

3) Cloud/ Online Solutions

A Microsoft, SAP or (insert any other software product company) implementation partner's job consisted mainly in implementing on-premise software in medium and large organizations.

This is changing due to cloud solutions. The updates, which could take months and years, were a lucrative business for implementation partners. Now the updates are done by the software product companies in automatic updates in their cloud solutions, which the end user will not even recognize.

4) Shortage Of IT Experts

Software developers are in high demand. Everyone wants to join the digital train. No one wants to be late.

Especially large organizations are creating huge budgets and hiring many software developers for their in-house teams.

It is oftentimes difficult for an IT service provider to keep up with the salaries and perks offered at these large organizations.

So even if there are many projects to choose from, there are not enough IT experts available for them.

What challenges do you see?

Picture source: Dirk Haun Flickr