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The Bigger Truth: Federal age gap and bank continuity failures
ESG senior analyst Steve Duplessie sounds off on the aging federal workforce, Zoom's potential growth and competition, and a better use for Bank of Ireland customers' money.
Enterprise Strategy Group founder and senior analyst Steve Duplessie had some thoughts on the aging federal workforce and the need for young applicants, Zoom's future aspirations and potential competitions, and Bank of Ireland's inexcusable fine.
First, job seekers under 30 are rejecting federal work. This alarms lawmakers, as almost 30% of the federal workforce is older than 55, and less than 7% is under 30. This age gap corresponds with a skills gap in key areas, including information security. The problem, as Duplessie noted, is that government work doesn't offer what young job seekers want:
"What that establishment doesn't grasp is that things like technology matter -- cool tools. And the latest and greatest [tools] are what make a job attractive -- not old men doddering around. The government must accept the new realities or everyone that works there will eventually just age out. They have to not only allow remote work, but they have to invest heavily in the technologies."
Next, Duplessie opined on Zoom and its future potential. While Zoom increased its UCaaS market share by almost 10 percentage points during the pandemic, Duplessie thinks it's only a matter of time before tech behemoths such as Apple and Microsoft take a serious look at the market.
"We already FaceTime every day, and now not only on iPhones," Duplessie said. "We already use Teams, so both of those giants could set the market if they focused on it."
Duplessie also had some tough words for Bank of Ireland, which was fined 24.5 million euros for business continuity failures. An investigation by the Central European Bank found that The Bank of Ireland could not guarantee customer service in the face of an IT disruption. There was simply no system in place to ensure business continuity. Duplessie said:
"While I don't know the details, I've been doing this for long enough to know that whatever issues they have were probably solved technically over 10 years ago, and most of them probably 20 years ago. So was it just blissful ignorance or a total lack of regard? I don't know. Either way, it's a waste of money. And if I were a Bank of Ireland customer, I'd probably feel more secure putting my money into Guinness."
Enterprise Strategy Group is a division of TechTarget.
