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|In: AI|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Corporate India is going through a defining time, with emerging technologies taking over many areas of business. Human resource is one such critical area, which is core to any business and has been going through rounds of revolution and transformation, both in terms of processes and technology.

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AI happens to be the newest kid in the block, which is taking the recruitment processes by storm, as it is getting re-engineered every day, with more and more intelligent and repetitive work being replaced by AI. Let’s look at some of the key areas where AI is being used to empower workforce:

Removing bias – Unconscious bias is a huge challenge that all corporates are trying to fight. Corporate India is no exception. When it’s a conscious bias, it’s easier to tackle but unconscious bias creeps in the most unexpected way. It can not only influence the choice of a candidate at the time of interview, but also the job description itself, making it a far more pervasive problem. AI can easily be used to remove this unconscious bias.

Evaluate profiles and first level interviews – Today sourcers and recruiters are spending a considerable amount of time in scanning, evaluating and shortlisting profiles and doing the first level interviews and the outcome of it is often very subjective, based on the emotional state of the recruiters. AI can easily take over these repetitive jobs, bring more objectivity to it and complete it much faster. There are quite a few AI-based platforms in the market today. According to a report by Forrester, by 2020, candidates applying to jobs at 20% of large global enterprises will interact with chatbots before recruiters.

Improved employee on-boarding experience – Employee on-boarding is the employee’s first experience with an organization and it’s the organization’s best opportunity to create an excellent first impression. Today, due to a resource crunch and subjectivity associated with people, on-boarding experience tends to be random and unstandardized. Using AI effectively can help new employees navigate their way into an organization more seamlessly, giving them an excellent on-boarding experience.

Identifying the customised training requirement for employees – Mostly, people become redundant within an organization because they lack relevant skills, but if we can train the employees in a timely fashion, then organizations can utilize its existing staff, without having to retrench and hire new employees. AI can be used very effectively to match existing talent with the required ones and identify the gaps in skillset and also to do a fitment of who is best trained on which of the required skills.

Resource Management function – People intensive businesses have a huge challenge of finding the right skilled people internally at the right time and often end up hiring people at a higher cost, when an equally skilled person is available within the company. AI can help with this function and in a very time effective manner, thus reducing the cost of hiring, training and keeping a skilled resource on the bench.

Identifying people who are looking out – Losing trained and experienced employees to competition is a huge loss to any organization. AI can easily track the employees keystroke patterns, idle time & internet checking patterns and predict whether the person is looking out for newer opportunities.

Smarter and better people analytics – AI-enabled employee analytics provide the necessary insight to ensure better employee experience. It ensures meaningful employee engagement, creating happier employees and increased employee retention.

And these are only a few of the core functions that AI can do immediately. However, there still exists a degree of apprehension amongst the human resource fraternity to totally embrace AI, for reasons unfounded. AI today is not just efficient, it is also inexpensive. Just one word of caution, it is imperative that the recruitment processes are reviewed and re-engineered to remove age old practices and made well suited for reaping maximum benefit out of AI.

Research from PWC shows that 63 percent of companies are rethinking the whole role of their human resources department in light of the impact AI will have on the business. Thanks to AI and RPA, human resource experts will be now able to focus on the core areas, which cannot be done by any technology. AI can help build a high-performance human resource team and as a result a high-performance workforce.

About the Author

Mohua Sengupta is the EVP & Global Head at Services at 3i Infotech Ltd. More details about her can be found here

|In: CoWorking|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The concept of a shared office has witnessed unprecedented growth over the last few years and has literally revolutionized the way the world and Indians work. Co-working spaces, as they are better known, are helping people find flexible, productive workspace options.

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Globally as well as in India, the growth of this concept can largely be attributed to a start-up ecosystem, whose preference for co-working space is due to multitude of reasons. It includes lower rentals, savings on operational costs and a more flexible work environment. At present, India has about 300 co-working spaces spread over 15 million square feet. The demand will continue to rise across the country so much that about 13 million people are expected to work in co-working spaces by 2020.

It is interesting to note how the rise of co-working spaces is influencing normal office design today. Numerous surveys have established that millennials are set to form nearly half of the global workforce by end of this decade. As a result, all new office spaces, co-working or not, need to address the requirements of this new workforce. For the millennials, offices are no longer restricted to the confines of an uninspiring cubicle or a desk. A design language is slowly evolving to create workplaces which can enhance creativity, use technology to network and make the workers feel empowered.

Let us now try to understand how co-working spaces are redefining office design in the 21st century

Space Planning

The workplace has changed and changed for good. All offices today need a decent community space near their entry which was unheard of earlier. The idea is that employees will mingle in this space and also conduct informal meetings all day long. The standard brief today to an office designer is that the office look-and-feel should appeal to the millennial and there should enough space for collaboration. Standing meeting rooms are getting common. Phone booths and nooks are a space requirement which cannot be ignored today while planning spaces in an office.

Ceiling Design

People are bored of the grid ceiling. Designers have realized that it is possible to have offices without ceiling. All the services running above the ceiling are now seen and used as significant design elements. The added height is always an advantage. Designer metal ceilings, wooden rafters, fabric elements, acoustical materials are now used to accentuate specific areas in the office. Biophilic elements are also being introduced in the ceiling.

Flooring Design

The nylon carpet tile, which was the default flooring option in an office is slowly giving way to raw tiles, wooden planks or even bare concrete finish. Carpets and rugs are being limited to only meeting spaces and cabins. Luxury Vinyl Tiles and any material which brings warmth in the office are being explored.

Wall Design

Solid walls are giving way to transparent walls. Glass is the preferred material for all partitions unless we need solid wall for functional reasons. Screens, metal frames and even fabrics are being used to define semi-formal spaces. The long boring corridors are livened up with eclectic artwork, theme based installations and graphics.

Workstations

The cubicle is dead and the linear workstation is the new way to work. This is now a reality because the nature of work in offices is also changing. Using a smaller module for your worktable is opening up spaces which can be used creatively to enhance the workspace experience for employers. Hot desks and agile workspace are now part of the new office furniture idiom.

Light Fixtures

As the grid ceiling makes way for open ceiling, the 2*2 light fixtures also is making way for decorative office lights. Designers are going berserk selecting various types of decorative light fixtures to literally decorate their offices.

Loose Furniture

Most of the corporates today have already decided to have at least 30% of their seats in collaborative spaces. This means, there is a sudden need for designer loose furniture in these spaces which are functional and aesthetic in nature.

Functionally, there are differences between a co-working space and a company owned corporate office. However, the popularity of this disruptive design among the millennials cannot be denied which is in turn influencing mainstream designers to adapt it for their corporate clients. As a design trend it is here to stay and thrive.

However, the end users need to note that following a new trend does not mean we ignore the fundamentals of circulation and engineering. We still need to make sure our offices are energy efficient and functionally aligned to employee wellness. Sound, light and temperature can affect the performance of an employee if not designed well. With that word of caution let us remain positive about the new direction in office space design thanks to the advent of co-working concept.

About the Author

Arnab Ghosh is the Director of Synergy Property Development Services. You can find more about him here.

|In: Guest Blogging|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Project management plays a vital role in proper planning and executing a project and to successfully accomplish a goal within a given time frame. In India, the project management jobs in project-oriented industries is expected to reach 21.7 million in 2027, according to Project Management Institute [PMI]. We should create and monitor project methodology standards, provide advice and create an environment to support our project managers.

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As per a recent analysis by PMI, project managers contribute to a nation’s productivity, which supports GDP that in turn contributes to the standard of living. It is estimated that the GDP at risk due to the project management talent shortage is US $23.4 billion in India.

Our customers are spending significant services amount on consulting, implementation and system integration. Hence, going forward, our constant engagements would be on how to improve the customer service and satisfaction, enhance employee productivity and shorten project timelines. We should start building assets that can help us align for this and proactively suggest best practices based on what we have learnt from projects with other clients. We need to package our existing thought process that can help bridge gaps between expectations and reality. We need to ensure that our project management capability helps minimize the risks, control costs, improve speed to market and make substantial improvements in our margins.

Let’s delve into some of the best practices that we should implement to enhance the project effectiveness.

Project Governance – There must be a common governance structure and framework at the beginning of each project, outlining day-to-day operations with short term and long-term goals clearly laid out, and certain parties must be tasked with the responsibility of ensuring completion of the said goals. This includes pre-determined points at which the progress is evaluated and decisions about next steps are made. These decisions should be duly recorded and thoroughly communicated down the chain of command, if they are to be effective.

Monitor project management quality – Quality assurance in project management involves regulating and managing the services that the project delivers, ensuring that the quality and consistency is retained. The aspect of quality control incorporates a process of monitoring specific project results to check if they are met or not. The project management team should be aware of the following concepts:

  • Prevention [keeping errors out of the process] and inspection [keeping errors out of the hands of the customers]
  • Special cases [unusual events] and random causes [normal process variation]

Advice project managers on risk management – The risk control phase includes risk management plan which supports to address a risk, based on suitable cost-effective control strategies. Here, the focus is to proactively minimize the risks before it occurs or to reactively recover it from the loss and restore the normal process state. Apart from being advised, the project managers also need to evaluate risks and find out ways to mitigate it. They also must identify potential risks in a timely manner.

Analytics/Metrics development – Analytics in project management provides continual improvement process. It also helps project managers to make tactical decisions, thereby improving project success rate. Project management analytics ensures that the projects are completed on time and according to specifications. Project metrics measures the success of the project. Some of the key metrics that can be used in project management:

a. Operational Excellence Metrics – It is at the core of every project and must be tracked and reported on for every iteration.

b. Business Value Metrics – These are used to determine the business value of a project like Return on Investment that indicates the bottom line of the return on any investment; Earned Business Value which is used to track the value of the requirements being delivered; Net Present Value which is used in capital budgeting and investment planning, to analyze the profitability of projected investment and Internal Rate of Return which is used to evaluate the attractiveness of a project.

c. Human capital – This represents the skills, knowledge, and values of the development teams and their readiness to do their jobs.

Project templates – Project template provides patterns to project deliverables, serving to increase understanding, save time and improve the quality of project outcomes. Project templates need to serve as per customer preferences as different audience have different needs. It acts as a repository for the work products created during project life cycle. Providing your project team with options for what deliverables they use and how they use them provides a fit-to-purpose approach to project deliverables that will improve your project team efficiency.

Best practices to be implemented post project go-live – Post implementation reviews should assess how successful the system is in terms of functionality, performance, and cost versus benefits, as well as assess the effectiveness of the overall project life-cycle and areas of further development. Project managers can gain through historical views of similar projects which will show comparative efforts, cost and resource usage, that in turn provides a wealth of information to guide future projects.

About the Author

Vineet Kumar is the Lead Consultant BI & Analytics, 3i Infotech. You can find more about him here.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

An efficient and effective hiring process is one of the main pillars of a successful company. The recruitment team has a difficult job on their hands as they’re responsible for sourcing the future employees of a company. If this process is flawed and they take too much time to find the right candidates, it can incur a substantial cost to the company. You might also lose out on good candidates while your competitors might end up hiring them.

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Qualified candidates are always in demand and research has found that they’re usually available for 10 days only. So, your hiring process needs to be quick and effective.

Here are some awesome strategies that will help you speed up your time-to-hire in the best possible ways.

Create a Structured Hiring Process

Not having a structured hiring process can lead to mismanagement and confusion. Candidates won’t get to know what the next step in the hiring process is. This will result in a poor candidate experience which can drive away many qualified candidates.

A documented and streamlined hiring process will help you minimize your time-to-hire as you will know what to do next. Your hiring team needs to be knowledgeable and experienced enough to set up an efficient recruiting process.

Build a Strong Employer Brand

Passive candidates are those who aren’t actively searching for other opportunities but wouldn’t mind considering suitable opportunities if they come up.

Building a strong employer brand can help you attract these passive candidates who constitute 85% of the workforce. This can help you tap into a wider pool of experienced and knowledgeable candidates.

Candidates are likely to be impressed and apply for positions at your company when you have a strong employer brand. You can build a strong employer brand by regularly responding to your online reviews and sharing updates about your work environment and culture.

When you build a strong employer brand, you might become an employer of choice for many applicants. This is likely to bring a steady source of quality candidates to your job openings.

Building consistent and loyal employee is also a great way to attract new talent which enhances the sound work culture in the organization. Time to hire will speed up automatically and you will get what you want for work.

Audit Existing Talent

You need to keep yourself updated about the status of existing candidates in your recruitment database. Internal auditing will save you time and can help you keep better track of candidates who might be looking for jobs. You can even fill out some of your vacant job positions by carefully auditing this talent pool.

If you want to learn more about how can you reduce your time-to-hire, check out the infographic given below

Infographic Source

About the Author

Ray O’Donnell is the Founder & CEO of TotalRewards Software, Inc. and Candidate Rewards. He has been helping companies to find, retain, and engage top talent by bridging the gap between the two. TotalRewards Software, Inc. is available on on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Voice technology is gaining mainstream acceptance thanks to the new voice based devices from the leading companies like Amazon, Google. Simultaneously Artificial Intelligence [AI] is becoming more efficient in identifying user intents. Many industries are experimenting with the devices and AI powered abstraction layers to identify areas that they exploit to deliver superior customer experience.

Image Source – Voice Control

According to Google, 20% of the searches are already by voice and they expect this to increase to 50% by 2020. Quantum leap in voice accuracy is another trend that is seen by the technology analysts over the last couple of years. The fast adoption of the voice activated devices is helping industries on a faster learning curve for the devices and accuracy. From the users perspective, at least 2 in 5 users say that voice activated devices are essential to their lives.

Some of the industries that are dabbling with this technology are retail, banking and financial services, insurance and healthcare. It is also predicted that soon industries will be looking at voice first strategies.

Banking & Financial Services

Voice is the new channel banks are exploring to add to the plethora of channels. Why conversational banking now? Aside from the trends pushing banks towards this new channel, banks are always on a quest to make their services and offerings more and more personalized. The next question everyone is faced with is how they can go about introducing this channel. This requires good understanding of their customers and how well their staff is trained to handle introduction of this new technology.

The smart speakers e.g. Echo, Google Home, Apple Home pod, etc. are being used as effective marketing channels in many industries. The starting point for banks can also be this, where skills or services are offered either via the smart speakers or voice assistant embedded in existing bank apps to deliver relevant information to the customers. This would help in keeping the customers more engaged with the bank, and progressively the voice skills can be evolved to handle more complex processes.

Today banks are expected to play the role of someone who takes care of the financial well-being of their customers. Personal Financial Management [PFM] is the way banks are keeping their customers engaged. Many see PFM as digital banking. The channel for this need not necessarily be restricted to portal, web or tablet, and this can be further extended to new channels like voice. This allows banks to start giving tips or education that is valuable and relevant to keep the customers more engaged with the bank and ultimately drive them towards more profitable actions.

Insurance & Healthcare

One of the biggest challenge Insurance industry has been facing globally is how to make consumers better understand the products they offer. This is why the prime channel to sell these policies today is via agents. But as we all know this channel has its own limitations from availability, time bound, limited access and finally knowledge of agent himself. With advent of smart voice assistant services using smart speaker industry can sure put this concern to rest, if done right.

Voice being most natural & common media to communicate, this channel can provide the required learning right at the time required. Like when buying a policy, consumers can be educated of policy coverage or during a claims servicing phase, the process can be explained easily and various liabilities etc. explained as requested by consumers. The voice as a channel provides ease of use for day to day transaction. The overall experience from this channel can be more than other channels combined.

Another good use of this channel would be in Healthcare industry which will benefit both consumers and providers side. While consumers benefit from ease of use from added channel the provider side can achieve excellence not only on the clinical aspects but also save lot of time they spend after each consultancy. A virtual voice assistance can help patient check-in and can assist doctor look up past medical records and test results.

One of the biggest concern/risk in Healthcare Industry for adoption of this channel will be privacy. The adoption strategy should weigh out these risks and leverage technology and Standard Operating Procedures [SOP] to mitigate them.

Key KPI’s

One of the success criteria of this channel depends on how well corporates/organizations are able to create a dialogue for its customers, where the system is able to respond in context to the customers. Final aim should be to pass the Turing test via this channel. This should only be an aim and not a limiting factor to open this channel up for their customers.

Security is another criteria that would determine the adoption of this channel. As a rule of thumb all the security protocols that apply to the other channels used by the bank would have to be built-in to the voice channel as well.

Finally the new channels should seamlessly integrate with all the other channels, so customers have an omni-channel experience. Organizations have created this experience with their existing channels. The new channel should just be an extension to this experience.

Technology Adoption

For an organization convinced about the business case of using voice as a channel, can begin with the development of a ‘voice application’ targeting any smart speakers.

Application development can be done on platforms like AWS Lambda/DialogFlow, which support code written in Node.js [JavaScript], Python, Java [Java 8 compatible], C# [.NET Core], Go, etc. Organizations IT team can decide the right technology in line with their technology stack.

The ‘voice application’ needs to interface with the back-end systems, especially the core platform in order to fetch the right response to users’ queries.

However, in the absence of any UI, the approach to authenticate a user becomes crucial, but can be decided based on the organizations policies followed in web portal & mobile app. In most cases, multi-factor authentication would be enough to comply with the security policies.

About the Authors

The article has been co-authored by Aparna Pallavi, Head Digital Banking – 3i Infotech; Sanjay Pathak, Head Healthcare & Insurance Solutions – 3i Infotech and Meghashyam Simha, Head, Mobility & Automation – 3i Infotech.

|In: Guest Blogging|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Today we must learn to be fast, fair and slow, all at the same time. Project management professionals across geographies, are not immune from these changes. Traditional construction management methodologies are also being replaced or reinforced with new tools and technology.

Image Source – Housing

In the last decade, there has been a tectonic shift in the way the real estate and construction industry is evolving in India. With the Indian construction market set to be the world’s third-largest construction market by 2021, it is imperative that Indian Construction and Design professionals up their ante in terms of delivering technologically advanced solutions.

The industry has seen sporadic improvements but in essence it largely remains a people-intensive industry as compared to the more developed parts of the world. Companies globally look at anywhere between 1~3% of project costs as the budget for software technologies to create cost and time efficiencies, which is a far cry for India.

While traditional project management models focused exclusively on the delivery of products and services, newer project management models are increasingly focusing on achieving results by interpreting the business strategy, providing effective risk assessment and deriving a solution. By embracing continuous innovation in technology, new age PMC firms are going digital by adopting ‘Cloud-based’ storage services and ‘end-to-end’ project management software solutions. Let’s look at some of the prominent technology tools which new-age PMC firms are using in India today.

Building Information Modelling

BIM is a 3D model-based process for creating and managing project information. The building information model is a digital description of every aspect of the build, and objects in the model can be linked to related information such as quantity, images, specifications or manuals. This technology benefits construction professionals by helping them create better plans, produce faster results, and stay within budget. BIM started slow in India. However with the advent of Smart cities, IoT, VR and AR gaining ground, BIM practice is witnessing a strong revival.

CCTV Monitoring

CCTV installation on-site is one of the best ways to protect a site from undue hazard. They help to track events across the site in more than one place at a time. CCTVs on-site also manage thefts and help to monitor employees at work. Client located offsite are now able to get a real-time view of their sites in the smartphones itself.

Unmanned Airborne Vehicles

Drones or UAVs are extensively used today to monitor the construction work for large and complex sites.  They help the Construction management team to have visibility of the workforce operating at heights and keep the site EHS complaint. Analytic software in Drones can help to do thermal mapping and land surveying. It is still not that prevalent in India but will gain ground once the legalities of their usage is formalized.

Project Portfolio Management software

Web based cost effective Project management software is being used extensively to streamline the construction process and increase efficiency. Usually, most of the online software caters to requirements such as maintaining and creating construction schedules, resource allocations, monitoring usage and generating reports.

Cloud-based Document management software

Cloud-based document management system helps to keep all the project related documents in an easily accessible organized manner. It also makes collaborations between teams easier and there are chances of easier recovery of data if it is lost. Most importantly such software has the ability to track deliverables and make the users accountable with well-defined workflows.

Online Conferencing Applications

Considering the fact that large projects have stakeholders located in different geographies, these online conference tools are a boon to PMC firms to bring the team together at an agreed frequency to resolve open issues. Most of this software allows documents to be presented in various formats for quick reference. Virtual meetings are the new reality.

Procurement software

Procurement software contributes to automating the entire tendering process in a project. Such software nowadays is integrated with the Client ERP system and support e-bidding process flows. The workflows are well defined with the necessary checks and balances in place. It helps to maintain transparency and a clear audit trail behind for all orders released against a project.

Web-based Collaboration tools

In any project, collaboration is essential to ensure that all the teams head in the same direction and create an innovative environment. Collaboration tools with real time chats, posting features and group messaging options enable teams to communicate with each other, access information and increase efficiency rapidly.

The flow of real-time information to every team in a project is vital. Amongst the deluge of data, tools which control and analyze the information will become popular. Technology today can create algorithms which help us to take decisions. Every day we are witnessing newer applications and gadgets coming in the market to aid construction professionals. The key is to be aware about the latest advances in technology and adapt them in an innovative and effective manner.

About the Author

Arnab Ghosh is the Director at Synergy Property Development Services. You can find more about him here.

|In: AI|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Although artificial intelligence may have once been thought of as nothing more than a sci-fi trope, it’s actually a legitimate technology that’s already changing how companies across a wide range of industries do business. Any professional who could benefit from enhanced data analysis and pattern recognition could theoretically take advantage of this technology.

Image Source – AI

Digital marketers are no exception. AI has the potential to revolutionize sales tactics through techniques like chatbot marketing automation. That said, many people still don’t fully understand this technology, or what it can do. That is why it’s important to learn more about it. By familiarizing yourself with AI’s capabilities, you are more likely to see how the tech can be used to improve your marketing strategy.

Introducing Machine Learning

Many AI programs rely on machine learning to function. Essentially, machine learning refers to an AI’s ability to develop specific problem-solving skills by referring to established data points.

For example, machine learning allows AI to analyze previous data sets from the stock market. As the AI learns thorough reviewing past trends, it’s able to make more accurate predictions about the stock market on its own.

This means AI is likely to make more and more key business decisions in the near future. Marketers can leverage this power to boost the success rates of campaigns.

Machine Learning & Customer Behavior

Again, machine learning involves analyzing data sets to learn a skill or generate insights. That’s why it can play a major role in any task that involves learning from consumer behavior.

There are currently many different channels that could potentially provide consumer behavior data. Social media conduct, search history, purchase history; all may offer information that can help an AI develop more accurate customer profiles.

This is very significant from a marketer’s perspective. According to a 2016 survey, 80% of marketers agreed that customers were more responsive to personalized content. Consumers want marketing content to be tailored to their specific needs and preferences.

Thanks to AI, offering that kind of individualized experience is easier than ever. AI can analyze customer behavior data much more efficiently – and thoroughly – than a human. Marketers will use it to more effectively segment their customers into separate groups and profiles, allowing them to target those clients with the most relevant content possible.

AI Content Curation

Stronger list segmentation isn’t the only benefit AI offers marketers. The technology also has the capacity to analyze reporting on topics ranging from sports and pop culture to science and politics.

Combine this quality with AI’s ability to generate detailed customers profiles, and it’s easy to imagine that marketers will soon rely on AI to provide customers with the information that’s most relevant to their interests. This helps automate one of the more essential components of any digital marketing campaign.

Chatbots

AI-enhanced chatbots offer many potential benefits to digital marketers. Along with taking over customer support duties, chatbots can reach out directly to customers via existing platforms like Facebook Messenger, alerting them to relevant promotions, new product announcements, and more.

Because AI has the ability to learn from customer behavior, a chatbot would know exactly when to reach out to a given customer for the best possible results. It will also know precisely what type of content it should provide.

Looking to the Future

In all likelihood, we have only just begun to scratch the surface of what AI can do for digital marketers. What is clear, however, is that it’s poised to offer major benefits. The marketers who embrace its potential early will stand out from the competition, offering their customers the kind of marketing experience that would be impossible without AI.

About the Author

Rae Steinbach is the Freelance Editor at Snaps, a mobile messaging platform connecting brands to millennials. You can find more about Rae here

|In: Guest Blogging|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The transformation in the world of technology is happening at pace which we have not experienced in the past. Implementation of new cutting-edge technology is moving out from a drawing board stage to being practiced by organizations across the world. As more and more organizations undertake the process of digital transformation to offer tech enabled products or services, IT roles and skills is undergoing radical shifts, something which we are already observing. This will affect the tech job scenario as we move into 2018 and beyond.

Image Source – Job Trends

In-demand IT roles have started to shift towards including positions focused on advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence [AI], Augmented and Virtual Reality [AR and VR], and the Internet of Things [IoT] along with exciting positions within cyber-security, cloud computing & network technology.

Through these observations we have identified the following as some of the key job roles companies require as they transform their businesses and processes for the future:

Cyber-security Analyst – This individual will manage risk for organizations through use of relevant tools and techniques to gather vital end-point and network host data with the goal of identifying vulnerabilities.

Network Engineer – This role will encompass coordinating between cloud and traditional networking resources to make a business’s communicate efficiently. They will need to know how to map technical network elements [e.g. router, an edge device, a micro-datacenter] to a company’s business needs.

Vulnerability Assessment Manager – The role of a penetration tester has matured.  Today’s pen tester does more than hack a server or use fancy security tools. Today’s pen tester takes a responsible approach and conducts strong, comprehensive tests to identify – and correct – unacceptable risks.

Technical Support Specialist – Gone are the days when the help desk professional fixed PCs.The world needs more tech support specialists than ever before: today’s tech support engineer helps manage increasingly complex issues involving data management, authentication and network troubleshooting.

Machine learning engineer – Machine learning use sophisticated programming such as R and Python to develop AI machines and systems that can learn and apply knowledge to perform tasks. These professionals will also work with complex datasets and algorithms to convert machines to intelligent machines.

Network Analysts – Businesses are investing more heavily in their networks as IoT is fast becoming critical to manufacture tech enabled products. A growing number of ‘things’ need to be connected in an efficient way, and that’s going to be a major driver of demand there. Network analysts in the coming years will combine their technical skill set with an understanding of how to apply it to provide real-time trending information on network traffic, and what those insights means for the business.

Cloud engineer – Almost all businesses are mobbing their on-premises systems to cloud and are choosing a hybrid approach, with multiple vendors. In the coming years, cloud engineers will need to create solutions which are mix of multiple technologies. Gone are the days when an Amazon engineer only worked on AWS or Microsoft engineers only knowing Azure.

About the Author

Pradipto Chakrabarty is the Regional Director, CompTIA, the voice of the world’s information technology industry. CompTIA is dedicated to advancing industry growth through its educational programs, professional certifications and public policy advocacy. You can view his profile here