New Snow 2022 IT Priorities Report Reveals Changing Role and Expectations of Today’s IT Leaders
As IT leaders look toward 2022, there are plenty of reasons for optimism. The pandemic continues to influence business strategies, but now, nearly two years since it’s onset, organizational leaders can look back on how they have fared and build off important lessons learned. This is particularly true for IT teams who were hard hit by pandemic-driven change and challenged to pivot again and again.
To understand how IT has handled this ongoing disruption, what they’ve learned along the way and how they plan to propel their organizations forward in the ‘new normal,’ Snow Software surveyed 1,000 IT leaders in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and India. We are excited to share the results, now available in the 2022 IT Priorities Report.
Confidently cautious
Companies that chose to amplify their digital transformation efforts through challenging times have excelled. They are now better fortified for whatever the future may bring, and 87% of IT leaders say their organization is prepared to weather global events. Budgets are forecast to increase, and new technologies and staff will be added in 2022.
But, there is also concern. While modernization efforts will continue at an accelerated pace, uncertainty remains on how to efficiently manage a proliferating technology estate and mounting professional responsibility. The results show IT leaders are confident yet cautious. With plenty of new-found experiences and reshaped perspective, 2022 will be the year for IT to take all that has been learned, set new baselines and drive toward new levels of growth.
Key findings
1. More IT leaders have an influential seat at the executive’s table today. 90% say they are a trusted advisor to the business instead of a one-stop-shop for technology. With this heightened leadership role, IT has increased responsibility and 92% have more financial accountability for their investments.
2. Hybrid work is here to stay and IT leaders are confident in their strategy. 90% feel their organization is now able to deal with hybrid work efficiently, yet it does come with worry. IT leaders have had to change a great deal (90%) as a result, and they predict it may become a burden for IT (78%).
3. Dual IT initiatives of driving accelerated digital transformation and managing an expanding technology estate to healthy ROI is daunting. 93% of IT leaders say the pace of digital transformation dramatically increased in 2021 and 94% say their organization became more innovative, yet 71% say they spend too much time reacting to problems.
4. Organizations put their money where their mouth is and increased technology budgets overall. Notably, security and cloud saw the largest increases in 2021.
5. In 2022, top priorities are challenging, but leaders are optimistic. Top priorities are (1) adopting new technology to improve day-to-day operations (30%), (2) reducing IT costs (28%) and (3) improving customer service and satisfaction. To balance these priorities moving forward, CIOs will need a more advanced approach for managing their technology environment.
In the year to come, as IT teams plan for more, rather than less, change over the status quo, how can IT manage such innovation and evolution? A larger technology landscape means the datasphere will continue to multiply too, yet how can all that data drive more actionable insights? 72% of IT leaders are unsure about how to get meaningful insights out of the wealth of data now at their fingertips. 93% say IT must invest in tools and technologies to extract value from their data and turn it into actionable intelligence.
The results demonstrate why technology intelligence has become critical to modern organizations. Leaders need full visibility into their current technology investments to adequately inform future priorities, plans and budgets. This is also how they fuel further innovation while maintaining control over their sprawling technology estate.
To learn more about the trends identified in the new 2022 IT Priorities Report, download your copy here. We’ll provide additional analysis and data breakdowns on the blog as we dig even deeper into the findings over the next couple months.
For additional help with your 2022 planning process, you can also check out our Software Savings Calculator, Cloud Savings Calculator and SAP Optimization Calculator for a personalized look at your environment.