Software Shelved?

I’ve been working for Sanderson Recruitment for nearly 11 years now, recruiting for all things software and providing numerous resource solutions for applicants, contractors and companies alike. The software industry is diverse and it’s growing all the time, encompassing many technologies, which continue to bring challenges to industry as well as the individual.

Over the years, this industry has been subject to constant change; government legislation, outsourcing arrangements and new technology have all played their part. Hopefully (he says with a smile) this blog will begin to provide a source of information covering these issues and initiate discussions about the topics that matter to you. As a recruiter I have a unique insight into what’s happening and I am often asked for my opinion. So here’s my blog guaranteeing plenty of opinions!

First Up:

Has the recession driven companies to look elsewhere for their software solutions or are projects simply being shelved?

2009 has been a tough year for everyone and I don’t want to start preaching about the reasons why the banking crisis has lead our economy into recession, I want to talk about how it has affected our industry. The UK unemployment level reached a record high last year and there is no doubt that IT departments across the country have suffered the effects of this, and prompted businesses to completely review their software strategies. Many companies were committed to new projects or continuing established developments at the beginning of 2009 but the onset of the recession has seen a marked change in attitude.

This year for the first time in a number of years has seen a dramatic reduction in IT spend and in some cases budgets have not even been agreed. Software development has been severely scaled back or stopped. In essence, I don’t believe that companies have moved their software development for a cheaper or different solutions, I simply believe projects have slowed, been shelved or postponed until confidence returns. A lot of software professionals have reported delays in project starts and extensions of work into next year. One thing has been quite clear - last year there was a distinct lack of new exciting projects. The term “Greenfield” has appeared about as regularly as Gordon Brown’s smile….

Next Blog: Will 2010 hold a brighter future for software professionals?