Define Skills and Capabilities Through Staff Augmentation
State and local governments face budget challenges in hiring top IT professionals who may prefer the higher salaries available in the private sector.
When considering staff augmentation in support of mainframe modernization, agencies can carefully consider the specific skills they require in their IT environment. Governments may still find it challenging to hire for specific disciplines, but defining those skills can provide them with a clear-eyed view of their requirements.
Some of these systems are running applications first written decades ago in languages such as COBOL or PL/I, which poses another set of hiring challenges: these skills are typically less available than Java or .NET. But there are upskilling options: companies such as IBM and Broadcom offer mainframe training courses. A number of colleges and universities are also offering mainframe education as part of IBM’s Academic Initiative.
In many cases, agencies overlook much of the simplification and modernization capability that has been added to the platform by IBM and the mainframe integrated software vendor community. Implementing these functions can address a number of technical difficulties, easing the operation of mainframes while also using technology that is attractive to younger professionals and incentivizing them to care for these IT assets.
LEARN MORE: What is Mainframe as a Service for state governments?
Specify Tasks in Managed Services Contracts
In a look at function-by-function requirements, state and local agencies can narrow the list of what they truly need and hire managed services providers to address those specific capabilities. The exercise of clearly describing their needs and expectations will aid in determining ideal staffing, yielding a well-written contract that addresses exact skill sets and tasks that are not being effectively handled by the current staff.
Often, fully outsourcing mainframe services may not be the best route for government agencies. Outsourcers look for ways to improve the bottom line and profit from the overall operation. An outsourced public sector account is typically managed as "your mess for less," where the goal is to manage the agency’s mainframes in a manner that costs them the least amount of money to make the best profit. Such a case invariably means fewer people overall and fewer people on hand, with little focus on technical improvements that will help the customer reduce costs through implementation of new features.