The IT Market in Canada is once again growing at a CAGR of just under 4 percent following the economic downturn of 2008-2009. The fast-paced economic growth of Canada and the consequent economic optimism is prompting businesses in the country to invest in IT to improve their efficiency.
Also, government organizations in Canada are increasingly adopting the latest technological trends such as cloud computing.
Canadian IT Industry Brain Drain
Though the IT Market in Canada is growing, there are very few IT specialists which is causing a brain drain, which could negatively affect the IT industry. Many Canadians have left and are leaving the country in search of better jobs with higher pay. The shortage of skilled IT workers in Canada is expected to increase by 2016.
The brain drain has resulted in just 1 in 10 IT companies in Canada meeting the demand in areas of cloud computing, mobile, analytics, and social media. Companies are also increasingly unable to find engineers and programmers. Of the available IT jobs in Canada, less than 27 percent are taken up by Canadian graduates.
3 Ways to Improve IT Industry in Canada
1. Adopt Cloud Computing on a Larger Scale
More SMBs are adopting cloud-based technologies compared to large companies, especially in the Government sector and Healthcare and BFSI industries because of the minimal IT personnel and infrastructure requirement.
However, even though SMBs understand the long-term benefits of cloud computing, only a few have adopted it because of the high costs associated with shifting to cloud-based technology such as moving data to the cloud, network bandwidth costs, multiple vendor application integration costs, and software testing costs.
Some benefits of cloud computing include increased flexibility of IT processes, economies of scale, accessibility to data anytime and anywhere, and low IT infrastructure spending.
2. Increase Adoption of Big Data
Many industries such as Financial, Healthcare, and Logistics are adopting big data solutions. The importance of big data increases with the growth of the business and it helps companies to manage highly sensitive customer data. Big data gained popularity in 2011 and at first it was challenging for leading IT companies because they had to make organizational changes to adapt to the new technology and learn new skills.
For instance, new techniques such as Apache Hadoop have been developed to handle large data; however, to use this technique, requires new skills and processes. In 2012, IBM in collaboration with the Government of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Business Inc. and six universities developed the IBM Global Delivery System for big data initiatives. This initiative was expected to analyze years of data within two days.
3. Increase Market Consolidation
Many IT companies have been involved in horizontal and vertical mergers and acquisitions and invested in innovative technologies. For example, IBM acquired Varicent Software Inc. in 2012, a Toronto-based provider of analytics software. Mergers and acquisitions in the IT sector have been mainly driven by the consolidation of cloud, mobile, and social media-based firms.
A few years ago, Canada outranked Japan and Taiwan in terms of the number technological deals signed and was second to the US in terms of the number of cross-border deals. The growing number of technological deals is creating new opportunities for companies in the IT market in Canada.
