Management Toolkit

Business skills: The key to tech success in 2005

David Southgate Tech Republic

Published: 18 May 2005 13:10 BST

As companies push into infrastructure upgrades, project managers will also find opportunities in infrastructure roll-outs and upgrades.

"When you've been in survival mode for a period of time, the project manager skill set is not there to do a new project or project development," says Phillips. "So really the need for project managers has increased quite heavily because of that aspect."

Business analysts shifting focus
Phillips also predicts a shift in the roles and responsibilities of business analysts. He's seeing a great number of companies reengineer processes and procedures based on the software they're purchasing.

"Companies have realised that whenever you have to upgrade [custom] software, you have to go all the way back to the drawing board," says Phillips. "You're talking about large dollars and expenditures."

Companies are shifting to pre-packaged business solutions with built-in best practice business processes. This cuts down on expense related to maintaining custom processes, but also redefines the business analysts' job. "You've got to have a person to take the technology and work it into the business process, rather than take the business process and write requirements for the software," says Phillips.

Getting ready for the growth
Technology professionals wanting to seize these new opportunities have to stay current with the demands of their professions. Techs should pursue training or projects that will get them more involved with business processes and understanding how business works.

"I think that going forward it's not just about the technology, but it's about bringing business knowledge along with the technology," says Phillips.