You are receiving this e-Newsletter just a few weeks ahead of our 2018 Executive Conference, an event that always energizes our membership. For this year’s conference we have dedicated one track to the topic of innovation. The term innovation has unfortunately been overused and I hesitated to use it in this year’s conference theme, Growth through innovation and sound business practices. I’d like to provide an insight into why innovation is a BIG DEAL for our System Integration community.
This year’s conference will take place in San Francisco, a location in close proximity to Silicon Valley and many respectable tech companies often associated with the concept of innovation. The truth is that innovation goes beyond the tech industry and this specific geography. When we ask our members, “What keeps you up at night?” the answer is frequently a) Attracting, retaining and developing talent and 2) Developing new business.
I have been impressed by some leading SIs who have recognized the challenges and adapted their businesses to make them more attractive to the younger crowds they target for recruitment. The war for talent is real and the tech industry is a desirable employer for many graduating engineers. What have these innovative SIs done? Some provide contemporary offices with attractive open spaces in desirable cities. They also develop their company culture proactively. Some provide opportunities for flexible work arrangements, including the ability to work remotely, if so desired. In pursuit of new business, SIs have started to take the functions of sales and marketing more seriously than in the past, either looking for help from outside experts or recruiting resources to master these functions in-house. Some have set up formal sales teams, which is not traditionally the structure in SI businesses. As you can imagine, all of this demands a broadening of the target candidates for hire. All of this is good, and provides SIs with broader ways of thinking and problem solving. This is also needed for evolving business models that SIs will either drive or face, as was covered at the 2017 Executive Conference. Several presentations at this year’s conference will provide SIs with a perspective on how innovation can be fostered and deployed in their businesses.
We also provide a track on sound business practices, a CSIA cornerstone, with CSIA Best Practices, Revision 5, to be released at the Conference.
We look forward to having you all at our conference.
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