New report and action plan address the globalisation challenge

Phil Codling, Principal Analyst

LogicaCMG and the CBI recently released a joint report entitled Building a Globally Competitive IT Services Industry. It sets out a number of challenges facing the industry in the UK in the coming years, and outlines actions to address these. Richard Holway was a founding member of the working group that produced the report, which draws on Ovum's recent research in this area. The full document can be downloaded from LogicaCMG's website.

Prominent in the work is an emphasis on the importance of education in ensuring future competitiveness. It even recommends that higher education tuition fees 'are reduced or eliminated in essential areas, such as STEM (science, technology engineering and maths) subjects.' LogicaCMG itself is committing to a 'visiting lecturer' scheme to teach IT-specific courses at UK universities. But the company is by no means going it alone; as well as receiving the CBI's backing, the initiatives laid out in the report are also being actioned by influential groups such as the DfES, Intellect, e-skills and The Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE).

This is a subject close to our hearts. Many of you will have seen the report Ovum produced for the Department of Trade & Industry earlier this year. It reached similar conclusions and made some similar recommendations, so it's pleasing to see this action plan beginning to put some tangible solutions in place.

Although UK focused, this new report is not about saving onshore jobs or protectionism, and neither was ours. The whole point is to foster a workforce adapted to the globalisation of IT, rather than resisting the unstoppable tide. Even some unions are beginning to accept that white collar jobs will continue to go offshore and that that is not necessarily a bad thing for the UK. But just because we're moving beyond the 'they're nicking our jobs' level of debate in this country, that's no reason for complacency.

We agree that the education issue is key. We've commented before on the drop-off in students taking numerate subjects and the threat this poses for the UK IT industry and indeed the economy more broadly. The irony is that globalisation actually presents our industry in the UK with an unprecedented opportunity to grow and to serve its customers.

Those of you who attended the Holway@Ovum evening last week will have heard us talk of a 'services revolution' in IT; the bit that really adds the value for customers should be staying and flourishing onshore, just as the less differentiating 'manufacturing' of code and process moves offshore. It would be tragic if we were to miss that huge opportunity because of a lack of the right onshore skills.

Phil Codling is a principal analyst in Ovum's IT Services practice. As service manager for Holway@Ovum, he is responsible for coverage of the UK software and IT services (S/ITS) market and industry. Phil's personal areas of expertise and interest include the impact of global sourcing, the financial performance of S/ITS companies, strategies for competitiveness in a mature market and the convergence of telecommunications and IT.