When I sit back and think about the future, my mind goes to a Jetsons-like setting where there are flying cars and robots doing every type of work imaginable. The CompTIA IT Services and Support Community set out to explore the future of IT Service Delivery over the next three to five years as one of their 2014 initiatives. The first step in this expedition is a recently completed survey of IT service professionals. Before considering the results, I had thought of the IT services environment of the future as that Jetsons-like landscape where techs are whisked to client sites in autonomous cars, tweak self-healing computer algorithms and have a Batman-like set of remote service tools that turn them into instant IT superheroes. But far from the Jetsons future I am envisioning, IT services of tomorrow are not focused on the latest gadgets, but on the timeless business basics of customer satisfaction, and recruiting and retaining great human talent.
When a customer wants IT service, they want their problems fixed quickly and correctly. It is no surprise then that IT services of the future will seek to continue to delight customers by addressing their needs in a complex and changing IT landscape (91 percent of respondents classified addressing customer needs and challenges as a “must have”). As the Jetsons-like world filled with robots moves closer and closer to reality, IT service techs will need to be increasingly adept at supporting a vast array of interconnected technology – mobile smart and converging devices that further blur the line between the business world and personal. Related to this, a further 89 percent of respondents said that improved customer retention is also a “must have”. Once more, this points to the imperative of great IT service meeting business drivers to foster satisfied, happy, long-term customers.
Jetsons-era robots will never be able to deliver this IT service required in the future. Instead, service providers will need to increasingly focus on identifying, recruiting and retaining great human talent as their next generation workforce (86 percent of respondents said identifying and assessing relevant skills of candidates, and 57 percent recruiting and retaining millennial workers, were must-haves in our survey). This is logical. In our future highly interconnected world, tech-savvy people will need to know how all these devices work together to create great business outcomes. Building and leveraging this talent pool is mission critical for IT service providers.
Lastly, though changes aren’t permanent, change itself is. This is further reflected in our survey as 79 percent of respondents rated business agility/adapting to the speed of change as a must-have. As technology adoption in the workplace and in our personal lives accelerates, the service provider of tomorrow will have to be increasing agile to stay ahead of this change. Now that is something George Jetson never had to worry about.
If you would like more information on the IT Services Futures initiative, or the IT Services and Support community, please contact Cathy Alper at [email protected].
Jim Hamilton is vice president of member communities for CompTIA.
