IT Specialist, eBay Style

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« Google and SalesForce.com speculate on the future – together | Main | The 100 Best Web Apps are …and you voted for them! »

Is it just the usual, cyclical phenomenon or are we actually dealing with a true revolution? One thing is for sure: more and more IT specialists leave the bigger corporations. They establish their own specialized bureau or become self-employed. Nothing clever there: in the current, red-hot market you don’t need to be a reckless entrepreneur to take the plunge.
From the outside, you might tend to see shifts like this as something temporary. With the next economic downturn, all the freebooting adventurers will queue up again at the gates of the big companies and IT suppliers. Right?

Well, maybe not this time. There is an important change in demand taking place. Companies are looking more and more for external IT specialists, leaving their own internal population at best at a stable level. The bad days of the Post Internet Bubble Dip are still well-remembered. With the new strategy, companies create an elastic cord that will save them from overcapacity and having to dismiss massive amounts of people.

But on the supply side, change is imminent too. And the interesting things happen in the more extreme age categories.

The number of older IT specialists is quickly increasing. And more than often, they don’t want to be part any longer of the worked up career rat race that we all know too well in IT. But with their wealth of experience and insight, they can be of great value to any project; through leading, consulting or coaching. These are typically roles that can be filled in perfectly from an independent, self-employed position, without the HRM manager breathing down your neck.

On the other side of the spectrum, we find the newly graduated IT students. A fluttering, YouTube-zapping species that already learned during study that through the Internet (think Elance, RentACoder, ScriptLance), you can choose yourself when you perform what kind of labour for which client. As true eBay style IT Specialists – living in India, the US, Europe, anywhere else - they sell their services through marketplaces on the web. And that involves the entire circus of supply and demand, bargaining and haggling and transparency (“tell us how you liked this Java programmer”).

Put it all together and you get an exciting mix. It might eventually evolve into a dynamic ecosystem of loosely coupled labour contracts between organizations and IT Micropreneurs.

We are well on our way towards such a Free Agent Nation. From Open Source, we already learned how to manage complex projects without having the individual team members located at one place or working for the same company. And once we have established true global certification standards for IT professionals (like ITAC), together with public methodology and tools standards (such as OpenUP), there is nothing to keep us from modernising our profession in a truly innovative way. We, the IT people, could be setting an example. Would be nice, for a change.

Posted by Ron Tolido on June 22, 2007 in Strategy | Digg this | Seed Newsvine

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Comments

# on June 23, 2007 6:44 AM, sagar talluri said:

Hey Ron,

Thanks for the nice links . I may too get into being an eBay style IT Specialists !!!

# on June 23, 2007 12:40 PM, Ron Tolido said:

@Sagar: You're most welcome. Actually, already some people asked me why I was putting this om Capgemini's corporate blog, where obviously a Free Agent Nation of IT Specialists might be a direct competitor to the company and also might tempt some colleagues to have a go at it themselves. Well, I am fully convinced that this is quickly becoming a reality which cannot be denied. For IT companies like ours, it’s an inspiring challenge to find our unique role in the ecosystem that is evolving. If you do it right, you can be the 'keystone species' in that ecosystem, providing a standardized, collaborative platform for others to join and thrive on, working for the company (with some advantages and disadvantages) or being a self-employed ‘micropreneur’ (with different advantages and disadvantages).

# on June 23, 2007 1:23 PM, sagar talluri said:

well Ron,
If i may add my view, i think companies like ours should take a challenging stance wherein every person in the company "feels" he/she is a free agent.Feeling like a freelancer has its own advantages if u think about it.
Its purely my personal point of view.

# on June 23, 2007 4:41 PM, Ron Tolido said:

@Sagar: Very interesting idea indeed, if a company connects more to the external ecosystem, one way or the other it will influence people inside the company too. I'm sure we will create 'eBay like' auctions inside companies like ours to find the best match between project 'demand' and personnel 'supply', challenging both project leads to attract the best people to their project and IT specialists to qualify themselves for the most interesting assignments. Thanks for the build.

# on June 24, 2007 12:49 PM, Zaffer Khan said:

Dear Ron,

This approach/methodology is sure a step that will revolutionise Working Methodologies, if I am not mistaken, this being implemented for the Company's Employees (within the company). In this scenario, Employee Satisfaction increases and thus, attrition rates are brought to the minimum. Innovation from the Employee adds Value to the Job. Project Management plays a key role here. And, at the end of the day, the job gets well done. And, we might as well find a gem like Edward de Bono hidden in the Working Crowd.

In the second Scenario where we implement it similar to that of RentACoder, what would happen of the Coder's Job Security? We considered Freshers, College Dropouts doing great in this, but, what would happen to mid-career level candidates who leave their jobs because they see Freelance Money and Work Satisfaction? Would their Job Security be compromised henceforth? We have seen incidents like "JAVA BOOM", in India, where people just went job-less. Please do comment on these lines.

I. completely, agree to the implementation in the first scenario, as this has got to increase the Employee's Level of Interest and Satisfaction. Capgemini has and will always innovate itself to keep its Employee Satisfied.

Thanks alot for posting such a good article.

Thanks & Regards,
Zaffer Khan

# on June 25, 2007 10:13 AM, kamen 123 said:

please note with bigger/serious projects rentacoder staff are INCREDIBLY STUPID PROFESSIONAL LIARS
they lie even with their slogan
perfect evidences at http://kamen123.blogspot.com

# on June 27, 2007 2:09 AM, Ron Tolido said:

Kamen 123 seems to bear a grudge against RentaCoder. I wish he would use some more proper wording, but for the sake of the argument, I have decided to maintain the item in the comments section. Please note some of the comments of other on his 'ReantaCoder hateblog' that puts his arguments in a slightly different perspective.

# on June 29, 2007 7:38 PM, Sergey I.Grachyov said:

The insulter "kamen123" has been banned from RentACoder:
http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/misc/ArbitrationInfo/KamenKaburov/RentACoderArbitration/KamenKaburov_RentACoder_Arbitration.htm
Main reason: "He insulted other parties numerous times".

"kamen 123" spoil perfect site in revenge.

My name: Sergey I.Grachyov
Nickname: TakeReal
I am famous freelancer.
I have:

896 projects completed via RentACoder
114 projects completed via GetAFreelancer
34 projects completed via Scriptlance

# on June 29, 2007 11:16 PM, Ron Tolido said:

Well, the above is certainly an interesting illustration of transparency and the type of arbitration that obviously not only occurs on 'goods' auction sites, such as eBay. Thanks for your build, 'famous freelancer'.

# on July 30, 2007 10:11 AM, kamen 123 said:

Sergey I.Grachyov/TakeReal is rentacoder's dog
His mental abilities do not allow him to understand that I have PERFECT evidences confirming that I'm right
He thinks that rentacoder is perfect because rentacoder is source of food for him
Like every dog he can bark non stop
Please do not pay attention to him
:-)

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