WHAT I'VE SEEN IS, NUMBER ONE, A shift into project management responsibilities.
The second change I've seen is the use of many different platforms to solve a user requirement. I'm speaking about the client-server environment. Client-server brings a whole new level of technology that the individual and the technologists must have in their breadbaskets, so to speak.
Consolidations are another important factor. UJB and virtually every bank in the country are restructuring in one way or another. This shift has provided a lot of opportunities and avenues for the technology people to grow. After all, consolidations and restructuring have to be supported by new technology.
Getting technology closer to the user, closer to the salesman, closer to the branch: this is where the growth is. In our organization, we've gone through some restructuring and downsizing. We didn't have to downsize the technology area because that resource that was needed to help the restructuring of this organization.
YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE WHOLE industry and what's going on. First, banks are trying to lower expenses, and expenses translate to head count. Automation is definitely going to play a key role in every aspect of cost reduction from something as simple as automated teller machines all the way up through the process of underwriting. Automation will continue to replace manual tasks.
If there is any kind of job growth in this business, I think it's going to be in the area of decision support: automated underwriting. Systems that can help make decisions and help banks streamline processes; that's where there is growth.
As for where the jobs aren't, my daughter is a finance major coming out of college in December and she's been interviewing. There don't seem to be as many management positions opening up. Banks are cutting back on middle management. The entry level positions are fewer because a lot of them are being automated.
THE HIGH GROWTH AREAS ARE IN telecommunications. Being able to manage networks - both wide area and local area networks - is a tremendous asset. If I were starting out in any field now, I'd focus on telecommunications.
The second big growth area is client-server. Everyone is talking about it. This gets back to the fact that banks are looking for ways to be more responsive and have information at their finger-tips. They are looking at ways to introduce products and services faster than they have in the past.
I also think that with regard to all these areas, the more expertise you have in financial services the better off you are. Having someone who is creative and who can reengineer the way the workflows are structured is of significant importance. We always need people who can look at new ways of doing business.
IN TERMS OF SURVEYING EVOLVING business needs, job growth will come in areas that empower the business to be more responsive to customers. This includes analyzing and reengineering the workflows and using technology to create more responsive and more personal service.
I'd also say substantial growth will come from implementing the networks and distributed systems that are fundamental to all the workstations and the client-server-type technology. Investment in legacy systems will continue to be required, but will be viewed as a "reluctant" investment by most organizations.
ON THE TECHNOLOGY SIDE, CLIENT server is a high-growth area particularly in systems design, analysis, and development. This is probably the greatest growth area. From where I come from - the Unix side, workstation, personal computers, client server area - I see less growth in mainframe development. From a platform standpoint, people are looking at unit price, price-per-performance, and trying to determine what is the best and most economic way to do the business. Most people are thinking about Unix. More and more people are migrating from the mainframe.
ONE HOT AREA IS MEDICAL payments and transaction processing.
Also, from a marketing perspective, people who know how to use and understand relational data base marketing will be at a premium relative to traditional bank marketing personnel.
Also, people who understand low cost and how to achieve low cost through front-end personal computer systems and other technologies will be at a premium because cost is going to become increasingly important.
At the same time, commercial bankers are going to have to adapt how they do business today and act more like traditional retail bankers and go after small business and small customers. The smaller the business, the more the business acts like a consumer.
