Sam Baillie, from IQ Tech, is one of InterQuest’s in-house experts across critical technologies impacting enterprises. She discusses the sector’s current trends, most in demand skills, biggest factors impacting technology and how these all impact the evolution of IQ Tech.

1. Sam Baillie, from IQ Tech, is one of InterQuest’s in-house experts across critical technologies affecting
enterprises. She discusses the sector’s current trends, most in demand skills, biggest factors impacting
technology and how these all impact the evolution of IQ Tech.
WWW.ITQTECH.COM |
WITH SAM BAILLIE
HOTTECH
TRENDS
THE

2. WHAT IS THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE
IN THE TECHNOLOGY MARKET?
I would describe the technology market as fast paced
and dynamic; it’s very much a buoyant recruitment market.
Mainly from acquisitive companies where they’re recruiting
key solution developers, infrastructure professionals and
then aligned to that, skilled business analysts and very
much commercial project managers to oversee that.
Some of the hottest trends in the technology market
place are within the Microsoft technology stack. Related
technologies to that are C# and .net, which are used for
development especially for web integrated solutions. So
for the likes of ecommerce, B2B portals and web portals
for example; it’s all very much centric to companies’
requirements to provide the solutions they need both
internally as a business and also to their clients - whilst
aiming to be in line and ahead of their competition.
I WOULD DESCRIBE THE TECHNOLOGY
MARKET AS FAST PACED AND DYNAMIC.
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3. WHAT’S IN DEMAND RIGHT NOW?
In addition to the hot technologies I
mentioned, open source technology,
database, BI related technology and
skills within SQL Server and Oracle, will
all be in demand. Specialist infrastructure
roles are key, especially now with
increased use of cloud; Azure Solutions,
infrastructure-as-a-service, storage, San,
NAS and also systems such as Linux, which
is an open source related environment – all
of which are very much in demand. But if
there was to be one huge obstacle that
consistently creates demand for jobs it
would be security; it’s always so important
to be secure so naturally we are seeing a
huge need for cyber security experts at
the moment.
More specifically, looking at the latest
employment stats, we can see that one
in five employers state that they expect to
see shortages in technical and engineering
job functions this year, meaning that
employers will have to focus on both
attraction and retention of employees
to maintain the workforce they need.
However, if everyone is looking to retain
their highly skilled talent, it means less of
these individuals will be readily available
in the market, that’s where my team
step in!
Sam Baillie,
IQ Tech
WWW.ITQTECH.COM |

4. HOW HAS IQ TECH CHANGED
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN HERE?
That’s a really good question! I’m in my 11th year here and I
wouldn’t say it’s been a change per se, more a continuous
evolution. I’ve seen the company grow and I like to think
I’ve been a part of that. That’s why I have been here so
long, I’ve wanted to continue to be a part of that and
provide my commitment and see real differences.
Naturally, available technology has advanced massively
over the past 11 years, with that we have evolved both as an
organisations and a team – our team has even doubled in
size! It’s difficult to single out key changes in IQ Tech, but
communication is key to our evolution. I enjoy working with
my manager and my colleagues, they’re very open with
communication; they’re clear with the strategy of the
company and share their vision to ensure that you can
continue to do a good job. I think it’s this level of
cooperation and openness that’s driving change within IQ
Tech. Likewise, we strive to have the same open
communication and relationship with all our contacts, it
keeps us well informed and agile.
WWW.ITQTECH.COM |

5. WHERE DO YOU SEE THE TECHNOLOGY MARKET
AND IQ TECH GOING IN THE FUTURE?
Technology is advancing at such a rate that current skill
sets are finding it hard to keep up. I suspect that in 5
years there will be new technology and new experts in
those technologies. I’d like to see IQ Tech continue to
offer the market place an excellent service proposition
in both solutions and quality. I believe the technical
market place in the future, certainly in the next three to
five years, will continue to be buoyant and I think it will
also be align to becoming more specialist. Clients
nowadays are looking for cutting edge candidates. They
want candidates that are at the top of their game and I
believe you have to offer a really strong service
proposition to be aligned to that.
Lucky for us, we know the right people connected to
the right places to stay ahead of the industry curve.
CLIENTS NOWADAYS ARE LOOKING
FOR CUTTING EDGE CANDIDATES.
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6. ANY EMPLOYMENT CHANGES RECENTLY?
We have recently seen an increased
demand across the Microsoft BI stack, with
strong demand in both Microsoft and Java
Developers. I believe that this is because
we are working in a candidate led market,
which is very competitive and IT is now
centric to just about every business.
I think that the technology market is going
to carry on getting busier. I have noticed
significant changes in clients that are
improving upon their recruitment process
because the increased demand is causing
timescale issues, which can only be
resolved with a good recruitment process
in place.
We have also seen huge demand uptake at
ECOM, our web and digital technology
practice, in skills such as UX specialists,
digital marketers and project managers.
Due to this increased demand IQ Tech have
recently taken on a new addition to the
recruitment team to continue to work
within the expanding staffingspace. As well
as this we also have continual growth plans
already set for the duration of the year in
order to meet this demand.
WWW.ITQTECH.COM |

7. WHAT’S NEW IN THE TECHNOLOGY MARKET PLACE?
Wow, well how much time do you have? There’s so much going on in the technology market at
the moment by the time I finished talking about it there would already be new stuff to talk about!
There’s a lot going on in ITSM at the moment, both ServiceNow and HP Service Anywhere are
making great strides in the market, push notification marketing is looking very promising, BYOD,
BYOW and wearable technology is really taking off and artificial intelligence is having a huge
impact in the way we think about optimising our technology. The future is certainly looking
pretty bright!
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8. TO SEE ALL OF IQ TECH’S LATEST
OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT OUR WEBSITE
WWW.ITQTECH.COM
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