As part of the annual UBIT report, SIC President Marc Gfrerer talked about current challenges, changes, prospects for the future and the topic of internationalization in the IT industry.
SIC President Marc Gfrerer and CEO of Logmedia GmbH and 4conform GmbH
SIC President Ing Marc Gfrerer, MBA has been working as an entrepreneur in the Internet sector for more than 20 years. The versatile entrepreneur also likes to share his experience and expertise with his employees, partners and customers and helps them to think outside the box in order to create new perspectives and broaden horizons.
As CEO of LOGMEDIA GmbH, he focuses on e-commerce and digitization and supports his customers as a sparring partner. Since 2019 he has been co-founder of 4conform GmbH, which specializes in data protection and risk management software for the ENTERPRISE market.
“Higher customer requirements, more and more extensive technical possibilities and increasing competitive pressure are causing many companies to go through a fundamental change process. In this rapidly changing environment, digitization is the key to sustainable success.”
What happened in the sector of Information Technology during last year?
The job profile in the field of services in automatic data processing and information technology has been adjusted. New professional fields such as cloud services, artificial intelligence and IoT were added. New training opportunities have been developed, such as dual training, which makes it much easier for future career changers to enter the IT industry. 2021 was another growth year for our industry.
Two years of pandemic – What have been the biggest challenges so far?
Most companies have made the switch to working from home. Besides the search for IT specialists, the biggest challenges are in the onboarding of new employees. There is a so-called “war of talent” in the entire ICT industry. Digitization is currently driving all industries. Therefore, in the future one should speak of ICT employees and not just of our industry. ICT employees are desperately needed in all sectors. The salary spiral is turning higher and higher and slowing down the growth of SME companies. Unfortunately, there is no change in sight.
How has the industry changed as a result of the crisis – keywords digitization, broadband, etc.?
Home office is here to stay. Many employees are certainly happy about this, but more and more companies are also facing new challenges due to it. It is important to find new creative formats and reintroduce one or the other creative presence day. A representative survey by the Software Internet Cluster showed that the larger the company, the more flexibly the home office was dealt with.
This is made possible by good broadband expansion, which is still largely sufficient for the current situation. The broadband expansion that has been started in Carinthia must be continued in order to be prepared for the future. But the crisis has definitely shown us one thing – the need of bandwidth is far from satisfied.
Outlook into the future: What are the major issues in the future?
There are a number of big issues in the future. Developments on the labor market will pose challenges for many IT companies. It will be necessary to focus on special areas. Economic researchers see a big game changer in the area of cooperation in order to fight against the shortage of skilled workers. I am still in a positive mood for Carinthia. The population development in recent years shows a clear growth trend. Corona is likely to have accelerated this development. Conversely, this means that we are entering an age of true location independence. As a result, the ICT job market is becoming larger but also more competitive.
There is a manager for internationalization in SIC. Why is internationalization so interesting for the industry?
In addition to internal goals such as gaining new members (also in the Alpe-Adria region), cooperation projects among our members, we also have KPIs for international business. These include cross-border events (e.g. B2B matching) and bilateral cooperation leads. Maintaining bilateral cooperation between cluster-like organizations is also part of the job profile of our assistant for international affairs. We are convinced that this will enable us to sustainably increase the added value in the Carinthian IT scene.
