The corporate IT landscape is involved in a “next-step” evolution. Cost management, increasing information management demands, and vendor management on the rise with the Cloud all point to a fundamental shift in IT departments and the roles required to fulfill their mandate. They also point to a particular concept: management.
The need for business planning, strategy and management skills in IT is on the rise. IT positions which were focused solely on the technical aspect are expanding to include more skills as part of the necessary toolkit. As some services move to external vendors, more management than technical involvement is required. This not only include managing the vendor in order to negotiate a suitable price and contract terms but also managing technologies in such a way that meets and supports the objectives of the business.
Here again is a solid case for two important areas of training and certification that are all too often ignored: ITIL and Project Management. IT professionals can and should obtain ITIL training to increase ones personal capabilities where it comes to IT service management. Having such training can elevate an otherwise “face in the crowd” resume to the top of a pile or distinguish you when it comes time to shuffle resources and compose the IT department according to the new paradigm. Also, acquiring project management training and certification such as PMI’s PMP certification is appropriate where management of projects will become increasingly important with more vendors involved.
High quality training for both areas is available in the GogoTraining online IT training course catalog: