Client: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
BCS is the professional body for computing with 60,000 members in 150 countries, and a wider community of business leaders, educators, practitioners and policy-makers all committed to its mission.
As a charity with a royal charter, their agenda is to lead the IT industry through its ethical challenges, to support the people who work in the industry, and to make IT good for society. BCS was originally founded to provide professional standards for the computing industry. As computers became more accessible the sector broadened into information technology (IT). Now, with the democratisation of technology, the sector has expanded beyond IT.
Many more people now have access to powerful digital tools. They work in the digital economy, but do not come from IT backgrounds and do not identify as IT professionals.
The task was to move BCS from exclusive membership for IT professionals to a more inclusive model for a broader digital economy.
Various sources of official and market sources were used to estimate the number of individuals in new digital roles that may be interested in professional membership or ancillary services from BCS.
A facilitated brainstorm with key staff was used to develop ideas for three key groups of potential members or customers that could be tested in research.
Qualitative, individual video interviews were conducted to explore attitudes towards professional qualifications and test new product and service ideas that BCS could potentially offer to be relevant to them.
Relevant terminology is one of the biggest barriers facing BCS in such an evolving and fragmenting sector. The relevant market is no longer simply computing or even information technology. Nearly every sector across the economy has been touched by digitalisation to such an extent that many new tech sectors have been born since the year 2000: fintech, regtech, proptech, martech and gaming to name but a few.
The next stage of this project involves using the research outcomes to develop relevant offers, terminology and engagement models for people working in the digital economy who do not self-identify as IT professionals.