Tech talent ecosystems

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Organizations are struggling under the complexity and waste of duplicative solutions that are slowing innovation and productivity. Transforming technology talent should enable the whole organization to navigate the influx of new tools, capabilities, and disruptors. To do so, a strong Tech Talent Ecosystem founded on mission-based teams that are empowered to look both internally and externally and act strategically is an imperative.

Looking across organizations today, the role of technology talent is rapidly changing, with increasing overlap of roles and responsibilities between Technology and the Business. As Larry Quinlan, the Deloitte US CIO recently said, “the evolving role of technology has reshaped demands on the CIO, calling for the type of skills… gained in the market developing technology solutions and building businesses.”i On one extreme, the COO of a multi-billion-dollar healthcare organization asked aloud why they shouldn’t consider outsourcing their entire technology organization – a clear gap in understanding the value technology leaders can offer business leaders. On the other extreme, “a growing number of organizations are also proactively pursuing novel competitive advantages by joining forces with existing and new ecosystem partners… [recognizing that] the traditional process of strategy development is too infrequent and labor-intensive to enable strategists to sense and seize opportunities as they emerge.”ii Technology leaders have an opportunity to rethink their talent in ways that will help deliver across new platforms and reduce operational costs across the enterprise. 

Organizations are struggling to compete with new market entrants due to the complexity and waste that comes from maintaining and repairing yesterday’s core solution investments, along with duplicative products and solutions that are slowing innovation and productivity. Although the demands on the CIO are evolving, their ability to meet the challenges of the future are often thwarted by technical debt. Shifting from an operational role focused on risk reduction and cost efficiencies to achieve operational excellence to a strategic one focused on value creation to help grow the business requires the entire technology talent strategy to be reimagined.

For example, during the last technology revolution, implementing large scale Enterprise Resource Planning tools was the focus, often coupled with outsourcing core responsibilities to vendors. The current technology revolution, however, is focused on revenue growth, an enhanced customer experience, and predictive insights, which is less compatible with contractual, vendor-managed functions. Overreliance on vendors has rendered some technology organizations ineffective and unable to adapt and utilize new capabilities and tools. Avoiding that outcome requires repositioning technology talent to predict disruption and translate business requirements into agile solutions. Re-architecting work to capture the benefits of the full talent continuum in tandem with robotic process automation and machine learning to remove transactional tasks will enable the workforce to provide value without losing necessary control over executing on the organization’s mission and expected outcomes.

Effectively managing the Tech Talent Ecosystem is key to helping CIOs structure the redefinition of technology to enable business growth and create value in the midst of disruption.

Authors:

• Cindy Skirvin, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP
• Nate Paynter, principal, Human Capital Services leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP
• Nathan Mesaros, senior manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP
• Michael McLaughlin, manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP
• Elizabeth Gray, senior consultant, Deloitte Consulting LLP