industryopinion The imperatives for
growth and innovation in 2023
Geoff Kneen, CEO, Content+Cloud looks at how cloud migration is integral to both cross industry business operations and facilitating the remote workforce.
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t’s no secret that 2023 is set to be a challenging year for businesses. With persisting macroeconomic challenges, such as the war in Ukraine, rising food and energy prices, and
inflation only expected to abate somewhat by the middle of next year, budgets are likely to be stretched for many. As with any challenge, it’s only natural to bring technology
to the fore when it comes to finding solutions. At Microsoſt Inspire, Microsoſt CEO Satya Nadella spoke about “the digital imperative” for organisations across industries. His core argument, that “digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy,” is undeniable and speaks to the power of technology to increase efficiency and accelerate innovation in all areas. He was chiefly talking about the potential for businesses to make their existing and future technology investments go further. But this isn’t just a reactionary tactic in the face of strong economic headwinds, it’s an essential imperative and long term strategy for proactive optimisation and growth.
The employee imperative Te events of the past three years have shown that the ability to operate remotely is the true measure of business resilience. Te COVID-19 pandemic showed the devastating impact that black swan events can have on organisations that are not set up for remote working. In this respect, cloud technology has been essential for delivering resilience and many organisations today are continuing to invest in hybrid and remote working models. Tis new hybrid-working paradigm has created a number of
positives for employees and employers alike, such as reducing travel costs and overall carbon footprints, and increasing flexibility around employee location, which widens talent pools. However, there are cultural challenges that must be addressed. For new starters and younger members of staff, time with colleagues and managers is crucial for professional development and building a sense of belonging within their team and the wider organisation. On the other hand, employees with young families may prefer to work from home as they are able to more easily establish flexible working patterns to accommodate their parental responsibilities. According to research from
Reed.co.uk, one in four employees are planning to leave their current job within the next 12
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months, so getting the balance right and ensuring technology is able to meet the various needs of employees is essential. Increasingly, employee experience platforms, such as Microsoſt Viva, are delivering this capability and I believe investment in technologies that enhance the digital workspace will increase over the coming year.
The cloud imperative According to a recent study by Foundry, 69% of organisations accelerated their cloud migration between Q2 of 2021 and Q2 of 2022, and the percentage of companies with most or all IT infrastructure in the cloud is expected to grow from 41% to 63% over the coming year. With cloud migration and the adoption of cloud services only expected to accelerate, it’s essential that businesses consider the long-term value of the technologies they onboard. Tis is where I see an increasing opportunity for MSPs to
support customers in assessing their existing investments. Scaling tools and platforms, for example, and bringing new capabilities to teams across organisations will be crucial. Power Apps and other low-code and no-code platforms, for example, can help to deliver stunning new insights and efficiencies for departments, from finance to sales teams, with very little engineering.
The data imperative With most organisations having migrated significant parts of their infrastructure to the cloud, the focus is beginning to pivot towards enabling greater automation and analytics capabilities. In short, businesses want to do more with their data. As referenced above, intelligent tools that automate manual
processes are essential for increasing efficiency - and also improving employee experience. Increased investment in data analytics and intelligent automation is a safe bet for the year ahead. With new technology now bringing voice into the realm of searchable data through voice recognition and transcription capabilities, I expect to see further advances in communications and analytics tools that will further streamline processes. With big bang digital transformations fast becoming a thing of
the past, we are now in an age where the power of data will be at the centre of transformation programmes.
December/January 2023 | 15
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