Technology Reseller v07

Subscription businesses grow nine times quicker Nearly all UK consumers are now part of the subscription economy thanks to an explosion in the number of businesses offering recurring services. A survey commissioned by Zuora, a SaaS provider of subscription order-to-cash solutions, shows that nine out of ten consumers now choose to subscribe to their favourite stores, brands and services instead of purchasing them on a ‘one-off’ basis – an increase of 11 percentage points on last year’s figure. According to the Zuora Subscription Economy Index, subscription businesses grow revenue nearly nine times faster than the S&P 500. John Phillips, Zuora’s VP EMEA, said: “The only way businesses can sustainably maintain relationships with consumers and grow is by moving away from their product-centric mentality and creating long-term brand affinity based around flexible subscription- based services.” www.zuora.com Third only to the US and China If technology were a national economy, it would be the third largest behind the US and China, claims Apptio and Rubin Worldwide in their new report, The State of the Global Technology Economy . This values the technology economy at $6.3 trillion, putting it behind the GDPs of the US and China ($18.6 trillion and $11.2 trillion respectively) but ahead of those of Japan and Germany ($4.9 trillion and $3.2 trillion). Dr Rubin’s valuation is higher than that of other analysts, such as Gartner ($3.5 trillion), because it includes the cost of all labour needed to support business applications, infrastructure and development and not just the hardware and software. The report claims that the technology economy is currently growing 2.4 times faster than the global economy as a whole. http://apptio.com/techeconreport More than half (54%) of businesses believe they are losing competitive advantage due to a shortage of digital talent. Yet, less than half have increased training budgets to develop employees’ skills in areas such as advanced analytics, automation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. In a survey of 1,200 executives and employees carried out by Capgemini and LinkedIn for their report, The Digital Talent Gap – Are Companies Doing Enough? , 29% of employees said that their skill set is already redundant or will be within the next 2 years. More than half (58%) of employees with digital skills say they are likely to gravitate towards businesses that offer better digital skills development. www.capgemini.com AI jobs a struggle to fill UK firms are struggling to fill AI job roles due to a paucity of candidates with the right skills, warns job site Indeed. Its analysis shows that the number of jobs in artificial intelligence (AI) has risen by 485% in the last three years and that in the last quarter there were 2.3 AI vacancies per applicant with the right qualifications. Mariano Mamertino, EMEA Economist at Indeed, said: “Employers in every sector are keen to utilise artificial intelligence and need workers with the right skills to fill these roles. Our data shows that competition for this shallow pool of candidates is fierce, with the number of available roles outstripping potential new hires.” He added: “The AI sector is likely to keep growing as the potential for the widespread application of the technology across different industries becomes clearer. Investing in education and the right skills needed to propel the industry forward will be key to its growth in the coming years. www.indeed.com Mariano Mamertino BULLETIN : TRENDS 01732 759725 4 Digital skills shortage bites ByCapgeminiDigitalTransformation Institute Digital Transformation Institute Are Companies Doing Enough? The Digital Talent Gap Why technologydollarsmatter, andhow topperformers arespending them  2018 STATEOFTHE GLOBALTECHNOLOGY ECONOMY SaaS market ‘ripe with opportunities’ IT channel companies willing to adjust their business operations face a wealth of new opportunities in the fast-growing software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, claims CompTIA in its new report Why Software as a Service? Benefits & Advantages of SaaS . Carolyn April, senior director, industry analysis at CompTIA, said: “The SaaS market is ripe with opportunities that have appeal for channel partners. Recurring revenue, faster time to deployment, more service dollars, and inroads to vertical market customers are outcomes many channel partners strive for.” Nearly three-quarters of channel partners surveyed have sold SaaS solutions in the past 12 months. Two thirds expect revenues from SaaS-related customisation and integration services to rise next year. A slightly smaller percentage expect a revenue boost from managing SaaS-based solutions for customers. CompTIA warns that to make the most of these opportunities channel partners will need to invest in training to build cloud-based skills, such as the ability to integrate SaaS applications located in different public clouds or to on-premises software. www.comptia.org CompTIA updates cyber security exam CompTIA, a provider of vendor-neutral skills certifications for the IT workforce, has updated its CompTIA Security+ certification exam to reflect the increased responsibilities of cybersecurity professionals. The new version of CompTIA Security+ (SY0-501) places greater emphasis on a security professional’s ability to identify and address security threats, attacks and vulnerabilities. Now in its fifth iteration, CompTIA Security+ was introduced in 2002, since when 430,000 individuals have earned the credential.