Hot Tickets From the Alliance
Each week Alliance members submit "Hot Tickets" as a way of presenting new observations and ideas on investable opportunities to ChangeWave. Today we're focusing on the greatest challenges facing Alliance members' companies in the current economic environment. Read on to find out what you need to know.
(1) Problems With an Aging Workforce
BAN53456 writes: "The technical professionals in the oil industry are experiencing what has been dubbed, 'the big crew change.' Most of the experienced people were hired in the early 1980s boom, with virtually no hiring from the mid-80s to 2000. So we have a bimodal age distribution with a lot of young people and a large number of near-retirement individuals without anyone in between.
"This is a serious gap that the industry will need to solve before retirements hit in full force. Even so, it is already affecting the capabilities of some organizations. The younger workforce needs to mature very rapidly, but in the interim, mentoring and a tolerance for mistakes are key."
(2) Wireless Limits
KFS18490 writes: "Our industry creates applications for mobile phones, including smartphones. Our greatest challenge is working with wireless carriers and the way carriers limit users' ability to access applications and services. The carriers cite various reasons for limiting the access -- from protecting customers to network security -- but these are, for the most part, excuses to cover the fear of losing control of customers and forcing developers to share revenue.
"If the mobile Web were open, as it is for the desktop, it would force the carriers to compete strictly on price, quality of the network and customer service. Imagine if your home ISP controlled the types of applications and content you could download to your PC. You would not be happy. But this is exactly what wireless carriers are doing to their customers."
(3) Perception vs. Reality
TOM96929 writes: "The current market perception is that the downturn in the economy is adversely affecting the adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), when, in fact, it's the opposite. SaaS is maturing and becoming more widely accepted. During budget crunches, it looks attractive because it enables companies to do more while paying less."
(4) Info Tech Outsourcing
PAT93209 writes: "For cost reasons, we are working with peers on another continent and are being forced to make it work somehow. This is happening all over the place in large IT companies. Job outsourcing is real, and in the United States we have to figure out how to make it work."
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