The infrastructure's in place. Now, midsize companies are looking to hire the talent they need to get to the next level of technology sophistication.
According to a recent report from the Computing Technology Industry Association, companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees generally have completed their basic infrastructure—hardware, software and networking—and are ready to focus on the next level in the hierarchy.
For most companies, getting to that level means they need to be focusing on hiring IT staff with networking and operating system expertise.
Specifically, CompTIA found that 60 percent of midsize companies cited employee proficiency in networking skills, 48 percent in non-specific server technology and 57 percent in security.
In general, larger companies are more proficient than midsize companies in application-level skills, specific programming languages and Web-based technologies. In the area of hardware skills, however, midsize companies say 64 percent of employees are proficient, while the number drops to 60 percent for large companies and 55 percent for companies with less than 100 employees.
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"These companies have invested in the basic infrastructure, and they are looking to add applications, programs and features onto their basic infrastructure, and that means they have a greater need for people who can do more advanced application development," said CompTIA spokesperson Steven Ostrowski.
The midmarket's need for these skills directly contrasts to the enterprise market’s greatest needs—security, server technology and soft skills like customer service and management—because those companies already have achieved the level of sophistication that midmarket companies are striving for, Ostrowski said.
That conclusion dovetails well with another of the report’s other findings—that the majority of IT candidates at midsize companies are looking for opportunities for skill development.
The report also notes that the biggest areas of technological weakness for midsize companies are in the areas of programming and Web-based skills, along with application-level skills.
Over the next five years, midsize companies expect wireless skills to grow the most in importance, along with Web-based technology skills and specific programming languages. Those, then, likely will be the areas where these companies hire IT staff; midsized companies expect an increase in IT staff over the next five years.
