Computerworld

Kiwi tech firm moves to address growing NZ IT skills shortage

For business leaders and CIOs, access to skills remains one of the biggest brakes on growth.

For business leaders and CIOs, access to skills remains one of the biggest brakes on growth.

The latest State of the CIO survey shows that 56 per cent of all New Zealand respondents are expecting IT skills shortages this year, with high demand in areas like business analysis and analytics, application development, enterprise architecture, and cloud and mobile technologies.

To address the need for top talent, Optimation is leveraging its 23 years of delivering IT services to create Presto Resourcing Options (PRO), an IT resourcing provider designed to meet the challenges of a diverse and demanding market.

According to the company, PRO will operate alongside existing brands, Optimation New Zealand and Optimation Group Australia (OGA), to offer tailored resourcing solutions to its customers.

Optimation's Group General Manager, Alex Bouma, explains that PRO has been created to leverage Optimation's experience in providing resourcing services and solutions by unleashing it from the core business as a separate entity within the Optimation Group.

“PRO will capitalise on the strong reputation Optimation has developed over many years for delivering Managed Resource Service solutions to our customers, and generate additional value by broadening and tailoring additional services for our clients,” Bouma says.

As an independent brand, Bouma believes PRO will broaden the resourcing solutions the company can offer Optimation Group clients across New Zealand and Australia, in order to help them address the talent shortage.

“We know that for companies seeking to innovate and grow through the smart use of technology, access to skills is the biggest limiter,” adds John Coventry, Business Manager, PRO.

“PRO provides our customers with resourcing options that are responsive, flexible, scalable and fast.

“The big difference PRO offers is that we're an IT Resource Management specialist, not just another general recruitment company.

“That means we have a deep understanding of how to match business needs to the right resources and processes to deliver business outcomes.

“Plus, we know from long experience what it takes to find and nurture top talent.”

Coventry says PRO resourcing solutions range from addressing capability gaps through to providing comprehensive workforce support for major innovation and transformation programmes.

PRO is staffed by a team of senior resourcing professionals with over 60 years of collective experience in IT resourcing and talent management.

So far, the team has directly recruited more than 200 people in the past two years.

“We are able to draw on the global reach of the Optimation Group and on our strong local and international networks to secure rare talent,” Bouma adds.