The role of IT is changing: Here's how enterprises need to adjust

The way we work has transformed. Increased digitalization, hybrid and fully remote work styles, and the integration of new and emerging technologies are all individual challenges in themselves -- but now, organizations and business leaders are expected to adapt to these changes simultaneously or risk falling behind.

This presents many issues for IT departments. The normalization of remote and hybrid teams and competitive industry pressures are major contributing factors to the increasingly prominent role IT needs to have in strategic decision-making. 

Implementing disruptive technology

Implementing disruptive technology (think AI, quantum computing, and the cloud) is no longer a competitive differentiator. Instead, it has become the standard across many industries. But tech-enabled companies aren’t without growing pains. Businesses that adopted new technologies out of urgency (to enable remote work during the pandemic, for example) were focused on putting a band-aid on an issue rather than rethinking their entire tech infrastructure. 

On the other hand, those that delayed buying into more advanced technologies are now scrambling to catch up. How well organizations can implement these new technologies comes down to the maturity of their digital transformation efforts. 

Making headway with digital transformation

One thing is for certain: digital transformation will be a defining factor in a company's success moving forward. According to research, IT spending is projected to reach $4.4 trillion globally in 2022, up 4 percent from 2021. With this increased spending, the top priorities for many IT leaders are to improve day-to-day operations, streamline IT costs, and improve customer service and satisfaction. Technological intelligence and innovation, focused on increasing the efficiency of operations and management systems, will make all the difference to organizations looking to get ahead.

Intelligent IT management

IT touches every aspect of an organization, from client-facing to internal. Employees and customers alike have higher expectations for companies’ technological capabilities and digital presence, so businesses can’t afford to fall behind. With executive insights tools, IT teams gain a "state of the state" perspective across multiple business and IT dimensions providing historical and real-time analysis of the entire IT estate. Critically, to ensure the right level of insight data collection needs to be done on a vast scale, for example 10,000 metrics securely gathered every 15 seconds at the edge, and more than 1,300 sensors across all enterprise endpoints.

Tech stacks that enable and facilitate smoother communication and collaboration between internal teams will have a positive knock-on effect on the client experience and employee experience. Intelligent IT management and implementation, spurred on by the needs of these key stakeholders ensures that, across industries, IT must work smarter -- not harder.

Improving digital resilience

Information technology is now the primary vehicle through which an organization's strategy is developed and goals are achieved. As a result, digital resilience is an important part of ensuring business continuity in the face of impairment and threats to digital landscapes. Strong digital resilience means quickly troubleshooting and addressing user connectivity issues, malfunctioning workplace platforms, and information security breaches in an effort to mitigate the negative effects of these disruptions. 

IT leaders are directly responsible for securing an organization.s digital resilience through investment in and implementation of the right technology. As businesses develop increasingly complex digital networks, it is imperative for IT professionals to have a seat at the table. 

Pushing IT into a strategic position

Often relegated to behind-the-scenes roles, IT department leaders are the best people in an organization to identify technology trends that can be adopted into existing processes and align them with business objectives. While the CEO may set the goals for the company, IT leaders determine which technologies will create the roadmap to achieving them. In the future, we will see savvy firms moving IT leaders into decision-making roles for the whole company.

CIOs and other digital leaders can quickly and efficiently define digital priorities and develop action plans alongside other members of the C-suite, to assist with day-to-day operations and long-term business growth. CIOs must work closely with other leaders so that they can create and own strong digital strategies that illustrate how investment in technology will lead to improved profit margins and increased revenue and employee satisfaction.

Prioritizing IT by bringing IT leaders to the C-suite gives the department the authority to proactively innovate rather than reactively participate. Gone are the days where IT departments were only called upon to troubleshoot glitches and handle emergencies; proactive IT is the key to tech-enabled businesses. Companies that bring their tech leaders into their business strategy discussions and operations will lead the pack into 2023 and beyond.

Photo Credit: Sashkin/Shutterstock

Jason Coari is VP Product Marketing & Strategy, Lakeside Software. Lakeside’s digital experience management software allows IT leaders to proactively measure, manage, and optimise their employees’ digital experience anywhere they are working. Jason is an accomplished B2B SaaS go-to market executive with 20+ years of progressive international experience in the technology industry. He has significant domain expertise in finance, life sciences and media & entertainment industry, and strong technical acumen in high-performance storage, data management, HPC, enterprise SaaS, and endpoint security.