Mending the digital skills gap through managed services

With today’s tech momentum, skills requirements are simply moving too fast for formalized job descriptions. Some companies are creating never-before-seen roles, with humans and machines working together. Others are calling on employees to circulate throughout the organization, contributing their talents to different projects.

It’s because the demand for emerging tech skills exceeds the supply. According to the KPMG Future of IT report, up to 70 percent of job postings for cybersecurity, data science, and software development go unfilled. And tech leaders say this lack of talent keeps them from adopting new technologies, advancing their cloud strategies, or achieving cybersecurity goals.

In addition, many companies are facing digital debt, as the constant influx of data, emails, and notifications outpaces people’s ability to process it. According to Microsoft, 64 percent of workers struggle to do their jobs due to scarce time and energy, and 60 percent of leaders, accordingly, are concerned about a lack of innovation from their teams¹. 

A skills-led approach

In response, progressive companies are no longer just matching people to jobs; they’re matching skills to tasks. In this kind of workforce shaping, jobs are decomposed into activities, which are then fielded by various resources—from in-house staff to contingent workers—who supply the right skills at the time of organizational need.

Another critical part of this mix is managed services. This is a flexible operating model that can evolve at the speed of business, combining advanced skills and technology to deliver knowledge-intensive processes. Managed services, usually provided remotely on a subscription basis, help organizations maintain productivity while also adapting to fast-changing requirements.

Leading providers bring:

• Hard-to-find skills. In addition to digital acumen in areas like cybersecurity, cloud, data management, and generative AI, the best providers combine it with industry-specific expertise. And this domain knowledge is not plugged in only for special circumstances. In modern managed services, it is an inherent part of day-to-day delivery, helping companies continually respond to market flux.
• Innovation. Managed services professionals also tend to have critical intrinsic qualities such as problem-solving, communication, and an appetite for learning. They bring the innovative thinking that tech leaders are struggling to get from their teams, including the ability to generate novel, surprising, and useful solutions to challenges.
• Strategic collaboration. When the business environment is constantly changing, organizations need a transformational collaborator, not a transactional vendor. That’s why leading managed services providers are not mere executors; they are knowledgeable advisors—on issues from process improvement to systems integration to regulatory compliance. In fact, in a recent market study, a third of executives listed advisory capabilities among the top three reasons for engaging a managed services provider.

Advanced technologies are critical for the operations of the future, driving productivity and innovation. But without the right people skills, a tech surge can have the opposite effect.

Recognizing that true transformation is always human, forward-looking leaders are seeking models that offer access to an ever-evolving supply of advanced skills. Many are finding them in managed services.

Learn more about KPMG Managed Services.

For an archive of past blogs, please visit Going Beyond: Managed Services.