A growing number of companies are allowing at least some of their technology services and requirements to be managed outside of their IT department, a new survey has revealed.
The latest CIO survey from Harvey Nash and KPMG found that 63 per cent of businesses now allow technology to be managed outside their IT department. However, this can present potential security risks at a time when digital technology is developing and changing at a rapid pace.
According to the survey, organisations that actively involve the CIO and wider IT department in decision making about business IT tend to see a host of benefits, including improving the employee experience and making it quicker for new products to go to market.
What’s more, where IT spend is managed without the direct control of the CIO, there are more likely to be breaches and cyber attacks.
This is despite cyber security becoming a greater priority among board members. This was cited as priority among 56 per cent of board members in 2019, up from 49 per cent in 2018.
Other trends within business IT to watch include automation and artificial intelligence (AI), with AI and automation an area that many boards are asking their IT departments to focus on. In fact, AI and automation has climbed by 17 per cent this year as a board priority.
But although AI and automation is likely to remove some jobs from IT departments, two-thirds of CIOs expect new jobs that are being created to compensate for the loss of any roles to automation and AI.
What’s more, the IT sector is facing a skills shortage, with the survey revealing that skills shortages in IT are at their highest level since 2008. The skills most in demand, and that IT departments are struggling to recruit for, are big data/analytics, cyber security and AI.
Finding IT support in Doncaster, or wherever your business is based, might be one way in which you can alleviate a skills shortage in your company and tap into the expertise you need without having to go through a lengthy and costly recruitment process.
Global leader of CIO Advisory Centre of Excellence at KPMG International Steve Bates commented: “There is no longer business strategy and technology strategy, it’s simply strategy with technology driving it.”
He added: “This research clearly shows that organisations putting technology in the hands of value creators and connecting the front, middle and back office are winning in the market. The future of IT is a customer obsessed, well governed, connected enterprise.”
Another IT area that a growing number of businesses are exploring is cloud computing. While this can be beneficial when approached in the right way, there are a number of things to consider, as a recent article for Tech Radar pointed out.
The most important is to carry out thorough research before adopting a cloud-based system. It’s essential to understand the full costs of cloud adoption, as well as to think carefully about security and how you can protect any data that you’re planning to store in the cloud.
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