The future may be brighter as more packaged software, even if modified, is now designed to make upgrades less painful on organizations. Finding skilled staff is a continual quest and the situation is not going to change in the near future. The restaurant industry may have to be creative in attracting and retaining IT staff. Industry analysts estimate there are 200,000 unfilled IT jobs nationally, and the gap is widening. Foodservice companies have addressed this issue with varying solutions.
Several options exist, including outsourcing IT, contracting, and re-training existing staff.
It's fine to benchmark the staff required for essential services such as POS support, but once you start looking at packaged vs. custom applications, strategic initiatives, outsourcing, and competitive factors, suddenly there are many correct answers. It's really about weighing fully loaded costs against benefits not just raw headcount. System Maintenance and Security System maintenance and security was ranked among the top ten IT issues, especially for large organizations. Skipping systems upgrades, performing undocumented system modifications, overlooking the maintenance of systems procedures, and not performing regular data integrity checks and system audits are several ways in which IT operators may run maintenance aground. Internal security is a multi-part issue, as it pertains to software, hardware, networks, databases, functionality, and access, which are all intertwined.