You’ve heard it a million times: Every company is becoming a technology company. Businesses in industries, including energy, manufacturing, retail, and agriculture, are building teams of in-house resources to advance their digital transformation. Matt Cox, Senior Director of Technical Operations for ITSM at SolarWinds, points out, however, that it’s important for ISVs and other solutions providers to recognize that those resources may have diverse backgrounds – and different needs – than internal IT teams of the past.
Training Current Employees as Internal IT Resources
Finding qualified job candidates with the right skills can pose a significant challenge in the current IT talent shortage. According to Cox, industries are overcoming this obstacle by retraining workers for internal IT service management (ITSM) teams.
“Considering 70 percent of tech pros are not completely confident in having all the necessary skills to manage their technology environments, it’s crucial that organizations invest in training their own talent internally to meet these needs,” he says. “This allows for more qualified people to be considered and retained.”
This trend isn’t limited to large enterprises. “We’ve seen companies large and small retrain workers for digital skills,” Cox comments. Furthermore, training isn’t a one-time event. As IT evolves, digital transformation creates change within the organization. Additionally, networks expand due to the growth of BYOD and new endpoints. Organizations need to continually invest in internal training and employee service management initiatives to meet the overall needs of the business.
“Employees appreciate opportunities to train and build skills in order to advance their own careers, which translates to a happier and more productive workforce,” Cox comments. “As companies invest in digital transformation, they need to invest in their own employees too – the whole organization should be involved in the process.”
Cox says, of course, businesses are still hiring workers with formal education and work experience in tech roles. “Companies are constantly looking for fresh talent and are expanding their candidate pool to meet the increasing demand for high-tech skills,” he says.
New Internal IT Teams, New Needs
Just as companies are taking a new perspective when it comes to building their internal IT teams, they’re also looking for new tools to support them.
“The trend between companies building up tech talent and investing in new development platforms is absolutely correlated,” says Cox. “Companies should lean on this talent to evaluate and implement cutting-edge technologies. Low-code or no-code platforms are a good way for IT teams to lay the groundwork for organizations. By configuring technology that the majority of employees can use and feel comfortable with, many organizations see greater success in the overall adoption of technology by the company. This also can help IT departments lessen potential technology issues and continue to focus on facilitating an effective digital transformation journey.”
Cox adds that organizations also want to equip their employees with the best tools that help them advance toward their digitization goals. “Innovative technology, like automation to streamline tasks and improve the employee experience, can increase productivity and a transformation drive throughout the entire organization,” he says.
The Beginning of the Journey
For many businesses and organizations, their digital transformation journey has just begun. This creates growth opportunities for ISVs and other solutions providers. “Many legacy companies are still in the early stages of digitization and look to tech companies as leaders and drivers of innovation that will benefit their customers for years to come,” Cox points out.
With the right tools for today’s internal IT teams, businesses can successfully transform. 
