Advisory firm Gartner has issued a warning to organisations dependent on mainframes this week. The analyst said that organisations must plan how they will maintain the skills needed to keep their operations running up to 2020. Why the sudden panic? Because their key staff, with all the application and business knowledge, are most likely to retire in the next ten years.
Gartner’s report, Ensuring You Have Mainframe Skills Through 2020, points out that computer giant IBM’s graduates are lacking in z/OS skills, which will lead to problems in the long run. Competition to those few that do have the right capabilities, from firms like HP and Microsoft, will be fierce and organisations will have to work harder to hold on to their employees if they do not invest in training now.
Mike Chuba, vice president of Gartner and the author of the report, also highlights the fact that companies using older mainframes or machines will face even bigger problems as employees with knowledge about the old technology pass through the company and new employees do not have the right training to cope.
Surely this is common sense? You would think that organisations like IBM, or even smaller companies, would be constantly investing in new talent and more and better training, but the global economic downturn put a hold on hiring, and if this pattern continues, many companies are in danger of running themselves aground.
Gartner has been urging companies to invest in training since as early as 2008 to avoid a skills shortfall. The analyst insists that the definition of a qualified worker changes so rapidly due to developing technology that not investing is business suicide.
The report recommends close working between CIOs and HR departments to figure out when a company is likely to need an influx of fresh new talent, and how to survive the difficulty of hand-overs and cross-training between old staff and new. At Inatech, staff training on new systems is a central part of what we do, as we understand the needs of an organisation to invest in its people.
Inatech also believes that the Oracle User Productivity Kit can really help an organization develop the core skills of the work force and encourage individuals to take advanced learning courses to enhance their skillset.
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Gartner was one of the analyst firms who declared the Mainframe dead over a decade ago. Despite an overwhelming evidence that (especially at THAT moment) mainframes were still running the majority of the worlds mission critical systems, the analysts showed us that "application X" would run cheaper on Windows than on a Mainframe... But today's mainframe is more powerful, efficient and agile than ever.. So we need people to run it.
The staff issue must be solved in two areas: the first being the MF itself and the software running on it. The second by training GenerationX people.
Many vendors tried "windowing" Mainframe apps. This did not have the effect we expected.. New initiatives are on their way from ISV's (go to www.ca.om/mainframe/may and register. You'll be amazed with what will be announced around mid May).. The next wave of Mainframe apps will support role-based activities that cross functions, social networking capabilities and much, much more).
But like I said, we need more. We need to attract and train new better than we do now. CA's Mainframe Centre of Expertise in Prague has developed a 6 month MF training and successfully trained young graduates in the past 3 years as Mainframe developers, support- and operational people. These materials, combined with an attractive commercial offer will be offered to customers world-wide as the CA Mainframe University very soon.
Now all we need is a lot of enthusiasm from mainframers to promote themselves more. Go to high-schools, Universities and even schools for kids between 12 -16 (different names in different parts of the world) and offer a 1 hour insight of what you do. Make it modern, attractive. Make it sound exciting and help us to get new people interested in Mainframes again...
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