Overheard in September: MSP Hiring Gaps, State of the Channel, Enterprise Mobility & More

In September, CompTIA podcasts provided insight into today’s most talked about tech topics—from enterprise mobility and the state of the channel to recruiting and hiring for managed service providers and more.
CompTIA Podcasts

This month, CompTIA podcasts covered a range of topics with member-experts and CompTIA staff providing insight into today’s most talked about tech topics. There are parallel threads across all the podcasts—from finding ways to narrow the IT skills gap to analyzing what the trends and talking points really mean to technologists and tech companies, and much more. Take a look at what we overheard on CompTIACasts in September then check out all of our podcasts. Subscribe and start listening today.

Trained, Disciplined Help Wanted for MSPs

On Coffee Break with CompTIA Councils, Chris Phillips, director of CompTIA's Industry Advisory Councils, chats with Robert McFarlane, Managed Services for Sirius Computer Services, about the opportunities and high demand for jobs in technology industry, how to find the best talent for MSPs, and the need for operational discipline—on both the client end and for MSPs.

[Hiring and recruiting] is definitely challenging for us, not only as a solution provider, but for everyone. In Dallas-Fort Worth alone, there are over 12,000 unfilled cybersecurity vacancies. We have a variety of strategies that we hire all over the world, but it’s tough and something we need to be working on each and every day…. For those interested, aptitude and attitude go a long way. — Robert McFarlane, Managed Services for Sirius Computer Services

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Making Strategic Connections to Grow the IT Funnel 

Technologist Talk features guest Amy Kardel, CompTIA’s new Vice President of Strategic Workforce Relationships, and her ideas about how to bridge the IT skills gap and nurture the careers of future technologists with a collaborative and strategic approach.

Why are we more attractive than other industries looking for workers? That’s the important differentiation we can make. If you look at the tech industry, we are something that is everywhere: cities, rural areas, hospitals, government, schools. So we need to think about how we are an enabler for other industries. We’ve had a lot of investment in our sector, [tech] can pay well, and [has] a lot of advancement opportunities in many areas.

— Amy Kardel, Vice President of Strategic Workforce Relationships, CompTIA

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State of the Channel and Enterprise Mobility

This month on Volley, hosts and CompTIA research analysts Carolyn April and Seth Robinson tackle a few of the most recent and pertinent topics in channel news. In the September 6 episode, Carolyn and Seth talk about the upcoming research study on the State of the Channel, which analyzes how the latest emerging trends affect or are affected by the economy, and what the data points mean to technologists in the industry. 

People are feeling a little bit of uncertainty of the direction of where things are headed and what their place is going to be … The use of technology is different, it's being used more strategically, and the level of awareness and expertise around technology has risen as well. A lot of companies don’t just need some really well-versed people and specialists in a lot of different areas. The whole thing is shifting. I feel like in the aggregate, that’s something we’re seeing companies struggle with. They haven’t quite embraced, 'What does it mean to be providing technology services in today’s business economy?' —Seth Robinson, Senior Director, Technology Analysis at CompTIA

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In a later episode, Carolyn and Seth react to the recent iPhone 11 announcement by discussing enterprise mobility. Though both hosts think enterprise mobility isn’t a hot topic anymore, the discussion centers around how companies and technologist need a fresher focus that addresses the real issues companies have with enterprise mobility, not the perceived ones.

Given that we talk so much about security, so much about integration, and so much about customer experience, about omni-channel approaches to dealing with customers—which means being able to serve anyone from any device that they want to use and any application on those devices that they want to use—you would think this would be more front and center for solution providers, but also the CIO’s office. —Carolyn April, Senior Director, Industry Analysis, CompTIA

Listen now.

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