Australian enterprises are seeking build up their internal skills base as they focus on digital transformation, according to Contino vice-president of consulting Andrew Brydon.
Figures released this week by Contino revealed that more than 56 per cent of enterprises represented in a new study by the company plan to hire more staff to support their digital strategy.
“They’re looking to create new roles and new teams within their organisations to support these transformations and particularly looking to do that internally a lot more than they have previously done, and so potentially looking to outsource less than they have previously,” Brydon said.
“Building that IP and retaining it internally is critical to them maintaining a critical mass in terms of their digital transformation.”
Contino — a global consultancy that focuses on DevOps and cloud computing — set up shop in Australia in mid-2017, establishing offices in Sydney and Melbourne. The company was founded in 2014 in the UK and also has offices in the US.
Its client base has predominantly been drawn from the financial services sector, counting Barclays, HSBC, Allianz and Capital One among its customers.
“We’re looking to replicate the success that we had overseas in Australia with Australian companies,” Brydon said.
Although he could not reveal the names of its local clients, he said that Contino has either completed or is currently undertaking projects with a number of major Australian financial services companies including members of the Big Four and significant “tier two” financial services organisations.
Contino to help mark its entry to the Australian market this week released the first of what Brydon says will be a series of research reports on the local market.
The report, The State of Digital Transformation in Australia, includes findings drawn from a survey of 110 Australian professionals ranging from engineers to directors.
Unsurprisingly improving customer experience and engagement is the main objective for most Australian organisations’ digital strategies, the report states. The vast majority of participants in the study — 90 per cent — indicated that digital transformation efforts require upskilling current staff.
“Over 62 per cent of businesses plan to restructure their IT teams in order to support upcoming projects, compared to 21.1 per cent which do not,” the report states.
More than 36 per cent of businesses represented in the study planned to recruit locally to help increase their skills base, while around 28 per cent planned to upskill existing staff and almost 24 per cent planned to source new talent from overseas.