In an effort to cut the amount of money a business spends on payroll each month, companies are forced to have to make some rather difficult decisions. These decisions are coming in the form of layoffs, and one of the departments that is seeing some of the most significant downsizing is in the information technology department.
While computers have been an emerging staple of the modern business world, so have information technology (IT) departments. These professionals have been responsible for meeting the daily needs of the technology housed within a company. Their tasks have ranged from answering simple troubleshooting questions, to installing new software office wide. They have been a valuable part of companies for years.
The IT staff always varies in size based on the business. The bigger the business the bigger the IT department usually is. At its biggest, in the mid- to late-’90s, these IT department could be anywhere from two to 20 in staff size.
However, most companies these days are getting rid of their IT departments. The truth is that these IT staff members, while efficient and qualified for their jobs, are costing more money than before. This is due to a few reasons. The first is that computers in today’s market are far better pieces of equipment than 10 years ago. They are far less susceptible to viruses and common breakdowns. This means there is less need to have staff on site that can handle problems that are dwindling.
Another reason is that so much of the software is online. These companies are using cloud computing and putting applications through online portals. This means that the benefit to having an IT person is almost null when there is nothing for them to arrange.
The life of an IT person will continue to dwindle from company to company as these corporations figure out more cost effective ways to implement computer software and trouble shoot.