At a time when banks are shedding IT roles by the dozen, it seems counter-intuitive that 83 per cent of the nation’s chief information officers should report they are confident about the future of their business to the extent that 45 per cent expect to hire IT staff in the first six months of the year. The question remains – is this a dead cat bounce?

NICTA has issued a press release celebrating the award of  the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO to its former CEO, Dr David Skellern, but without mentioning his contribution to the development of Wi-Fi technology.

The Information Technology Contract and Recruitment Association (ITCRA) has warned of a contraction in Australia’s ICT job market in the next 12 months, after a slowdown in employment towards the end of last year.
According to ITCRA, a review of its SkillsMatch data for 2011 and industry data showing  softening employment in a “jittery” market,  found that vacancies for ICT professionals dropped 20.1 per cent last year.

ITCRA CEO, Julie Mills, said that while a slowdown isn’t unusual towards the end of a year, the market as a whole was looking jittery. “The Vacancy Report from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations showed vacancies for ICT professionals dropped 20.1 per cent in the past year.”

“The Longhaus Australian Tech Index, which measures the health of the Australian ICT industry, decreased 2.9 per cent by 31 December 2011 – the most significant decline since the second quarter of 2009. This drop was put down to a less demanding labour market in the last three months,” Mills said.

And, Mills says that data from ITCRA’s SkillsMatch showed that in the last quarter of 2011 it took recruiters and employers in most states “much longer to find and hire candidates.”

“The average number of days taken to fill a role increased in the ACT, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, with the most substantial increase in the ACT. In the third quarter of 2011 it took an average of 26.4 days to fill a role, jumping to 41.4 days in the fourth quarter.”

SkillsMatch also identified continuing gaps between the top 10 skills offered by candidates, and those required by employers, according to ITCRA.  “Five of the top 10 skills requested by employers – systems administration, telecommunications, testing, Java and SQL – don’t appear in the top 10 skills offered by candidates,” Mills said.

“Following an upgrade in December 2011, SkillsMatch is now also able to provide an indication of ‘skills fulfilled’, which shows us how often recruiters were able to hire someone with the particular skill they required. For example, our data shows that 35.66 per cent of hirers looking to fill project management roles in 2011 were successful in finding someone with that skill.

“The majority (59.7 per cent) of those looking for employees with C# experience were able to fulfil that need, while only 3.16 per cent of those needing workers with telecommunications experience were able to meet that demand. This data shows there are still opportunities in the market for recruiters and job candidates.”

Mills suggests recruiters should continue to focus on building and maintaining connections with a strong candidate database while focusing on “sourcing job seekers who have the skills most requested by employers.”

Communications systems integrator, NEC, has appointed a new chief of its maintenance and support services business, NECare, with the company pursuing a goal of becoming the ‘leading ICT services provider of choice’ in the Australian market.
Ross Magee, director of customer delivery at NEC, announced the appointment of  Philip Belcher as Executive General Manager NECare , and said the appointment reflected NEC Australia’s commitment to further expanding its ICT services capabilities in the UC market.

“Phil brings with him a wealth of knowledge, both as a leader and an industry expert to enable the company to provide better services to our customers and build on NEC’s reputation. In this role, Phil is responsible for driving growth and maximising profitability in the NECare business, directing the organisation to become the leading ICT services provider of choice, helping customers gain business value from the communications revolution,” Magee said.

Magee said Belcher would provide maintenance and support services that provision the unified communications sales and channel teams, serving some 1200 customers across 11,000 locations throughout Australia.

Belcher has more than 25 years’ experience in senior executive roles with IT organisations, including as Managing Director of DataCraft Australia until it was acquired and integrated into Dimension Data Australia. He was also director of the enterprise line of businesses for Cisco Asia Pacific and Australian managing director of Storagetek, Radware and PM Partners.

Melbourne based consulting firm, 1st Executive has launched an internship opportunity program for businesses and young professionals, including IT graduates, looking to gain experience in the workplace.
According to1st Executive director, Andrew Thoseby, a free, 20 day service to industry is provided through the internship opportunities, with the program designed to open career doors for students and post graduates. 

Thoseby said university students who are looking to gain experience in job industries, but are finding it too difficult to do their own bargaining, have enrolled in the program which he says has been designed to assist “young talent and future leaders.”

“Internship opportunities are not easily landed and can be hard to find for undergraduates. 1st Executive will use its national network of clients and contacts to secure host companies,” Thoseby said.

“Candidates from a variety of markets have applied including engineering, accounting, marketing, and IT and while some universities require work experience as a part of the academic curriculum, many courses do not.”

Thoseby said he was always surprised to meet IT professionals, engineers and many other “skilled and talented young people cleaning my office or driving cabs when there was supposed to be a talent shortage.”  “We also saw overseas students coming into Australia specifically for an internship and then taking their expertise back to a competitive economy - we wanted to do something about that.”

According to Thoseby, the company has been overwhelmed by the volume of interest from young people and is also receiving ten or more briefs a day from potential hosts. “We have been delighted at how many companies are willing to give their time and attention to helping young talent prepare for future employment.”

Salesforce.com has appointed Vivek Kundra as its executive vice president of emerging markets.

Optus has appointed Kevin Russell, the founding CEO of Hutchison Telecommunications (3) in Australia to the newly created role of chief operating officer.

Australian-listed software and IT services company, Sirius, has appointed a new chief to head up its group of companies which include subsidiaries, intelligence software systems provider, Infomaster (IFMA) and its help-desk and operator services provider to government, Sirius Managed Services (SMS).
Sirius Chairman, Mr R Parrab, announced the appointment of Anthony (Tony) Onsley as managing director and CEO. Mr Onsley was previously managing director & group general manager for S.C. Johnson (Australia & New Zealand), CEO for Moore Business Systems and most recently executive general manager – strategy & growth for GEON group.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Onsley said “the path forward will be a challenging one, but with the passionate and loyal people I have met in the business so far, and the continuing support of the Board and our shareholders, we will set and aim to achieve some ambitious goals and objectives.”

Cisco has appointed the former head of Nokia Siemens Networks in Indonesia, Richard Kitts, as vice president for Cisco Australia and New Zealand, replacing Les Williamson who was promoted to lead Cisco's newly created Asia Pacific area in June 2011.

Specialist IT recruiter, Finite IT Recruitment Solutions, has stormed ahead with business growth over 2010-2011, particularly in the government sector, writing contracts across all if its business segments to the tune of $50.6 million and ensuring a third placed ranking in the recruitment sector this year, according to a labour hire report just released.
Market research firm Intermedium confirms in its latest report that Finite IT is now ranked third overall, writing 345 contracts valued at $50,670,000 which represents a six percent market share for the Sydney-based, national recruitment firm.

Intermedium says Finite achieved “significant growth” in federal government labour hire, with business in the sector up 140 percent year on year. The report confirms that a total of 6,581 labour hire contracts were reported in AusTender – the Australian Government’s central tender system - during 2010-11, with a combined value of $864.5 million.  In comparison with 2009-10, there was a decrease in value of one percent and a decrease of two percent in the number of contracts.

Finite IT’s managing director, Tracy Thomson, said that last year the company grew contract values by 44 percent and was ranked in ninth position with a three percent market share.

“The expanded Canberra team, combined with a successful local acquisition in 2010, has greatly assisted our significant growth in the ACT Federal Government market.  We are also making steady progress winning further Federal Government business around the country, which is very encouraging.”