Spare a thought for the plate-spinning IT departments
If you've read anything lately about how we’re on the verge of a business technology revolution, don’t believe it.
The business technology revolution isn’t hypothetical, or an eventuality. It’s already happening. Right now. Solutions and approaches that can enable your organisation to maximise its potential and gain competitive advantage are everywhere and are rapidly becoming more advanced. Big data, the Internet of Things, 5G, cloud computing, and mobility are all converging.
With these advancements comes the realisation that having a superior network in place is now more important than ever. As these trends continue to grow at pace, so do the data demands on networks. A scalable and agile network infrastructure is therefore vital in allowing organisations to ride this business technology revolution, leading from the front. Failure to act accordingly could otherwise see firms fall behind savvier competitors and quickly become an industry anomaly. There is a risk of total stagnation.
Stagnate
Nobody knows this better than IT departments. We conducted a report which found that the majority of IT decision-makers were part of organisations that had strategies in place to transform their digital operations. An even larger proportion stated that their firm’s chief information officers and IT managers valued the adoption of digital transformation in order to achieve business objectives.
However, knowing what needs to be done hasn’t been enough for some IT departments. Many organisations are still falling behind the proverbial pack because they aren’t successfully adapting their strategic approach and fully embracing change. IT departments find themselves frustrated on the sidelines, declining new business opportunities, and prioritising their efforts on ensuring that their slowly ageing legacy IT systems can keep its head above the rising waters of data demands.
Spinning plates
If IT departments could spend less time spinning plates, they could spend more of their time reducing overheads, and increasing revenues by as much as 12 per cent.
Digital transformation doesn’t have to be a daunting prospect. IT staff don’t have to struggle and fret over budgets. Organisations simply need to break down implementation plans into digestible steps. There are a number of achievable changes organisations can begin to make that will ensure their IT departments are finally able to start saying “yes” to opportunities.
Platform for innovation
A bottom-up restructure of your network with new technology – simplifying and automating its processes – will alleviate unnecessary pressure and time constraints on your IT department. Continually adding extra layers makes no one’s life easier. With a new, fit for purpose system that focuses on mobility, cloud, social networking, and big data (our is called the New IP), comes fresh focus, which encourages innovation and accelerates the speed of service delivery.
IT departments are essential for helping organisations perform at their best, and the latter need to ensure that their strategy reflects that. While big data, the Internet of Things, 5G, cloud computing, and mobility can all appear both intimidating and challenging, they are opportunities that could (and should) bring potentially big rewards for organisations. Senior staff need to do what they can to prevent IT departments from becoming too caught up in holding up the spinning plates – because they hold the key to delivering so much more.