IT has always wanted a seat at the table – per a survey by IBM of 3,000 CEOs, we have one. CEOs highlighted the technology executives at more than twice the rate of other C-suite members, and as the most critical executive. Interestingly, only 23% of CIOs in the study expect pandemic-related shifts to remote workplaces to become permanent.
Of course, Syntax – a cloud provider – warns IT leaders are overconfident. Half (49%) of respondents said they would be unable to successfully mitigate a data breach or ransomware attack. The majority of enterprises reported that less than half of their processes are currently automated, and that 48% are not using low-code and no-code tools. While 61% of IT respondents reported positive ROI for cloud investments, only half of finance respondents reported neutral ROI on cloud infrastructure investments.
And, respondents saw some of the lowest ROI in managed service provider relationships in the last 12 months, the report said. Additionally, 41% of those who invested in IT managed services saw neutral or negative ROI.
Why do we care?
Businesses, generally, recognize technology as a necessity. That was happening pre-pandemic, and the accelerant that is COVID just proved it. The industry has a seat at the table… and with that comes the scrutiny to actually deliver. That’s why we care here.
Expectations go up… and thus, without change, the ROI goes down, as the business is expecting more. This is all data for those who position as a virtual CIO too, which is the promise of SMB IT services. Yesterday’s service offering cannot be today’s.. and for sure not tomorrow’s.