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The Web 2.0 phenomenon and developments in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) space will trigger a demand for a new set of IT skills.

Technology headhunters and industry insiders say IT professionals should be building expertise in tools such as .Net, Microsoft's Dynamics NAV ERP software product, PHP (a scripting language for producing dynamic Web pages), and the current version of Java Enterprise Edition.

"Skills in .Net applications are going to be very hot over the in the next two to three years," according to Tao Qiu, recruiting manager for technology training and specialized staffing firm Robert Half in Toronto.

Qiu was a speaker in a peer discussion meeting Tuesday night by members of the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS).

CIPS members and other IT professionals shared their views on hiring trends.

Qiu said about 60 per cent of companies approaching them for IT talent are looking for particular skills in .Net, a key software component of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The .Net framework is being used by most new Windows-based applications. Qiu believes demand for this skill will go up to 75 per cent within the next three years.

With Microsoft's recent release of its new ERP tool Dynamic NAV (previously Navision), Qiu also predicts many enterprises will intensify their search for NAV-proficient talent.

"There's a big push for this ERP tool in the market. Unfortunately not a lot of people are trained in using the new Microsoft package in Canada."

Demand for skills in various networking tools and dynamic Web applications is growing because the adoption by businesses of Web 2.0 technology is heating up, according to David Lundquist, communications director of CIPS and a Toronto-based Web applications engineer. Lundquist is also principal strategist for Codeblossom.com in Toronto.

"A quick survey of the Toronto IT job market using craigslist will show that .Net, PHP and Java2EE are the top skills companies are looking out for."

Lundquist observes a growing trend among Toronto firms to jump on the Web 2.0 bandwagon by snapping up young developers who can help them produce dynamic sites

"Everyone wants to be Web 2.0 enabled. There's a lot of emphasis on graphic user interfaces but backend security is being sacrificed for glitz."

Growing adoption of unified messaging (UM)by government and the corporate world is also going to bump up demand for messaging administrators, he said.

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