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Downers Grove, Ill. – Business units are increasingly adding technology experts to their staffs independent of the traditional IT department, a new report from CompTIA, the world’s leading technology association, reveals.

Executives cite the need for specialized skills, faster response times and better collaboration as some of the reasons why they are staffing up on technology-oriented job roles.

“This isn’t a case of rogue IT running rampant or CIOs and their teams becoming obsolete,” said Carolyn April, senior director, industry analysis, CompTIA. “Rather, it signals that a tech-savvier workforce is populating business units and job roles.”

In the CompTIA study, 21 percent of chief financial officers said they have dedicated technology roles in their department, including data scientists, business analysts and software developers. More than half have created hybrid positions that are partly technical- and partly business-focused.

Technical job roles in marketing department are also on the rise. Social media managers and digital marketing managers are the most often mentioned positions. Systems administrators, data analysts, web analytics specialists, marketing technologists, and database administrators also made the list.

Within logistics and sales teams, the most common tech-related job roles include project management specialists, data analysts and database administrators.

The presence of more tech-related occupations within business units is paralleled by these units taking on a growing role in assessing new technology options and making buying decisions. Nearly 40 percent of respondents said their business unit foots its own technology bills. (For more on this trend, see “New Buyers, New Habits Alter the Technology Marketplace”.)

But while lines of business have greater autonomy to make tech-related purchases and hires, they continue to collaborate with their colleagues and co-workers in IT. Four in 10 line of business respondents said that their department works jointly with IT to determine which hardware, software, services and other tech solutions they’ll deploy.

The CompTIA study “Considering the New IT Buyer” is based on a February 2017 online survey of 675 U.S. businesses.

CompTIA: Building the Foundation for Technology's Future

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the world's leading technology association, with approximately 2,000 member companies, 3,000 academic and training partners, over 100,000 registered users and more than two million IT certifications issued. CompTIA's unparalleled range of programs foster workforce skills development and generate critical knowledge and insight – building the foundation for technology’s future. Visit CompTIA online, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more. 

Contact:

Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA
630-678-8468
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