The new business season starts with optimistic signals. This is evidenced by the increase in requests and new projects from clients and how hot the market is. It is the first chance for the Ukrainian IT industry to make a breakthrough and become a world leader. But knowledge of technology is not the only factor for success. These are the expectations of Cisco, Atlassian, and IBM scale technology partners and the skills that will help Ukrainian specialists reach a new level of work.
1. Keeping the focus on business Business always has a specific goal – generating rhubarb, entering a new market, etc. Since technology helps achieve these goals, it is part of the overall ecosystem. Suppose the solution was developed long ago and is based on outdated technology. It is still profitable; then, the companies have no reason to recycle it if only to use a more innovative approach. It is necessary to accept. That is why one company can use not one but a whole set of technologies that have appeared over the past decades. Our role is much deeper than just adding another one to the list.
2. Understand the internal organization of the client Every company is a complex and complicated system, even for internal stakeholders. Under these conditions, the IT company’s tasks are to: identify the needs – understand the processes – link them together – understand what can be done in how much time and for what budget – communicate this to stakeholders. Thus, you will show yourself as an expert and gain the client’s trust. Under these conditions, a long sprint for one fixed-priced project turns into a marathon of a long and mutually beneficial partnership. Everyone wins.
3. Standing up for your interest As a rule, large enterprises have a lot of internal stakeholders who work with their consultants. Accordingly, we are constantly fighting or competing with someone – beginning with the engineers on the client side who have their vision, to other vendors, who, for example, need to obtain all the necessary access initially. It sounds simple but a significant challenge. It depends on whether we will be able to complete our work in time and show the client the result he expects.
4. Present yourself Good work is the main task. But it is not the only one. It is necessary to show yourself and your achievements to the client, stand out among others, and not be afraid of attracting attention. Experience shows that Ukrainians are more complex in this than Europeans or Americans. Perhaps this is because, since school, we were taught to be quiet and modest, not to show off. When we go out, everything is the same. Accordingly, a difference in mentality is given signs. We talk, hesitate, and are afraid to declare ourselves until we are 100% sure of our correctness and that the client at this moment expects to feel the very same. And competitors use this time to their advantage.
5. Find a common language Technicians and non-technicians work together for one result. This requires appropriate skills from both of them – an engineer must be able to explain orchestration or Kubernetes to those who have no idea what it is. Managers need to learn at least the basics of technology to be able to understand and correctly pass information from engineers to customers. Considering this, the client needs to have not just a technical contractor but a strategic partner and provider of complex technological solutions. The difference between these two categories is in the ability to show themselves, understand the essence of the problem, and explain the principle (and not just say “”I need it this way””).
To move from the first to the second category, it is essential to focus the efforts on developing technical expertise and appropriate soft skills. Companies that will be ready to invest in this will move up to the top league. The solution is that they will not be able to compete with staffing agencies.
