Is the ITAM Skills shortage deeper than we think?

You often see or hear people discuss the skills shortage within IT Asset Management (ITAM) or software licensing. They are correct – there is a skills shortage that several organisations are trying to rectify through apprentices or graduate schemes. Kudos to them for doing so, we need the next generation of ITAM professional to start forming their career and taking our industry to the next level.

I’m fortunate enough to be a member of The ITAM Review Radio show along with far more knowledgeable experts than I. In the February podcast (which you can find here) we discussed the scope and potential for ITAM to continue to grow and how exciting it is to be in this industry. When you consider the number of organisations with 2,000+ employees (with assets, obviously!) around the world and match that against those with ITAM Technologies, managed services or a dedicated ITAM professional and you quickly realise we have a long way to go until we have world domination.

We can’t keep up with the demand and technology vendors, managed service providers and other consultancy firms are always on the lookout for more staff to meet their customers demands. But could there actually be a deeper problem with the skills shortage within ITAM with regards to those people in ITAM or Licensing roles?

“I got this role because no-one else wanted it”

This is not a finger-pointing blog, it’s more pointing out the risks of having people in ITAM or Licensing roles that don’t have the level of skill or experience to deliver the goals and objectives set by the organisation.

After travelling around the world, meeting fellow professionals and discussing their plans for their ITAM function, the conversation nearly always gets on to the “so, how did you end up in ITAM?”. The most popular answer is either “by accident” or because “no-one else wanted the role and I fancied a change.”

Some of the best ITAM professionals and most knowledgeable people I know fall under the above bracket. They take the opportunity by the horns and thrown themselves into learning about ITAM, licensing, audits, compliance etc. They even, dare I say, grow to love their jobs and move on to bigger and better things or to run their own independent consultancy firm.

Even the most experienced expert can learn and improve. I refer back to the podcast whereby experienced guru and expert Barry Pilling openly mentioned a vendor he didn’t know much about. He’d not dealt with them before but had to provide expert advice to a client.

He subsequently put a lot of time and effort into learning about the licensing models, the commercial models, how the vendor works and any potential ‘gotchas’, so he could support his client. A lot of us do that, but this point will make sense in a minute.

There are also those who see it as a job – a 9 to 5 role that puts money in their banks and gives them security. Again, nothing wrong with that what-so-ever. Simon Sinek, the author and motivational speaker once referred to the ‘9-5’s’ as the ‘backbone of every organisation’. He’s not wrong, but could that mentality be detrimental to an organisation when it comes to ITAM?

Knowing your stuff

I have no doubt that some people reading this won’t have a high opinion of my work or what I’ve achieved – and that’s fine. I work to the best of my ability, I’m always reading or learning about licensing models I don’t know about or other business areas to see how ITAM can add value and understand their world. If you worked with me 2/3 years ago then you worked with a different person. If you work with me in a years’ time, I’ll also be different to the professional I am now.

I firmly believe that I can hold my own and have the confidence to deliver whatever ITAM objectives are thrown at me or defend an audit. Like with Barry’s example, if I don’t know a certain licensing model or how a vendor works I’ll ask around or do my research, so I feel comfortable in defending an audit or delivering a piece of work.

Unfortunately, there are those out there who do not share the same mentality – and that’s what worries me. In our world you need to know your stuff. I hear stories all the time from vendors, MSPs or independent consultants saying “I’m working at XXX cleaning up the mess the previous ITAM/Licensing person got them in.”

I’m not talking about ways in which the person worked. You may implement ITAM in the best way you think works for that organisation. Someone else may come in, with different experiences and think a different approach works. That’s fine – that’s not a skills issue that’s just preferred ways of working (if the aim/goal is the same!).

I’m talking about people knowing about compliance issues and not doing anything about them. People implementing processes without involving key stakeholders or really understanding the business or requirements. A ‘wham-bam-thankyou-mam’ approach will only lead to a world of hurt.

There are people who don’t understand a certain license model and are too afraid to ask for fear of scrutiny. They then purchase the wrong license type or understand the License Agreement incorrectly so deploy the software in such a way that makes the business non-compliant.

Then there’s those who just straight up break the rules because “we’re company X, we’re bigger than any software vendor. They wouldn’t dare audit us.”

Want to bet?

On the hardware side I’ve also encountered organisations disposing of equipment incorrectly and not following WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Recycling) guidelines or not correctly destroying the hard-drive resulting in a potential data or GDPR breach.

How do we fix this?

In every job you’re always going to have skill levels. It’s like football (or soccer) – you have those at the best club in the world, top of the league with players of immense skill that work together for the good of the club (like Luton Town!!), and you have those who play part-time, happy to play with mates on a Saturday or Sunday knowing they’d never get into a Luton Town team or get thumped 6-0 in the FA Cup Final... (can't think who that might be...)

What the community can do is to support those who are happy in their role, but perhaps don’t have the experience or have knowledge gaps. There are a variety of forums that can support any questions you may have, and you can do so anonymously, such as The ITAM Review Forum. There is no such thing as a wrong question (apart from why is ITAM boring – easy, IT’S NOT!!).

Furthermore, career path mapping for potential ITAM professionals would also help, and I think those apprentice schemes promote that. We need more graduate and apprentice schemes within ITAM, and as soon as I’m able to I’d love to bring someone into the ITAM world and help kick-start their career.

This isn't a brag about myself, but more an example of how someone in our industry can absolutely fly with the right attitude and mindset.

I employed someone at Johnson Matthey as a SAM Admin with no previous SAM. After a year and a lot of hard work, she is now a SAM Lead for another organisation. (I’m taking no credit for that, it was all them).

Hard work, extra reading and research paid off massively as they found a career they’re interested in and immediately started to climb the ladder of success. They’ll continue to progress further, and will no doubt be my boss one day!

Let’s encourage that kind of growth and behaviour. Let’s show the next generation of ITAM professional that this is a wonderful industry to be in – with lots of career growth and learning and a real sense of making a difference. Let's promote the fact that ITAM is a great industry to build a career in!