Are we entering the third era of IT in 2020?

Changing of the Guard: Will Technology Leaders Soon Set Business Strategy?

By Sean Farrington, SVP EMEIA, Pluralsight

According to a survey of more than 3,000 CIOs and technology leaders, enterprises are entering the ‘third era of IT’. Having transitioned from a period in which IT was seen as a separate silo of the business to one in which IT is now strategically aligned to the business, technology is now seen as a business imperative. It’s no longer a ‘nice to have’ or an after-thought, it’s what keeps businesses competitive and aligned with market demands.

Are we entering the third era of IT in 2020?

In Ireland, this has never been more pertinent. Like other parts of Europe, business is as competitive as ever and all sectors are being challenged to maintain their market position. Retail, in particular, is experiencing an acute struggle, and recorded the highest number of insolvencies for the first three months of 2019. These challenges demonstrate the importance of companies moving quickly, embracing a digital proposition and listening to their customers. It’s clear that no business is immune to the digital revolution. All businesses – no matter what sector – should be re-evaluating how to meet the demands of the modern customer.

However, the decision to embed digital transformation within the entire business strategy needs to have the full support of the C-suite and needs to be pioneered by the experts. Often those leading the business through this change aren’t the CEO or CFO – who have traditionally risen from financial or sales backgrounds. Instead, these projects are spearheaded by technology leaders, those who have a deep understanding of technology and are best equipped to map this transformation to the business strategy. In fact, CTOs and their teams are ideally placed to oversee digital implementation and selling the benefits of the shift to internal and external stakeholders.

Future of business leadership

Across multiple industries, be it retail, healthcare, automotive, energy or financial services, every business leader is talking about the importance of digital transformation. It’s become synonymous with a progressive, agile business that can evolve to changing market demands. Yet, they aren’t deploying the right team members to lead these efforts. According to a Deloitte study, just 34% of CIOs are playing a strategic role in their organisation.

Moreover, a recent report by Dell Technologies shows that 61% of businesses are being held-back by an insufficient digital vision and strategy, losing ground to competitors as a result. Thus, it’s never been more pressing for technology leaders to take their mantle as one of the key drivers and the technology consultant for future business strategy.

Forward-thinking companies will recognise that technology leaders, be it the CIO, CTO or equivalent, have the expertise and insight into the wider business to deliver an appropriate strategy. However, this is not to say that the CEO or other c-suite executives won’t have a role to play too. Cross-business collaboration will ensure that transformation programmes align with all business units and, most importantly, deliver for their customers. For instance, Fujitsu, the leading IT services provider, has found that by aligning its IT team with its client services function, it has been able to evolve faster with customer needs and embrace new technologies as they emerge.

Building the talent pipeline

Importantly, for technology leaders to implement a programme of change, they need the talent at their disposal to be capable of executing on specific projects. Unfortunately, the skills gap is continuing to grow. In the last year it’s risen by 12%, and the demand for skilled professionals is becoming ever more competitive. But technology leaders don’t need to panic. In fact, by focusing on developing the skills of existing employees, they can adopt a more sustainable and scalable approach to meeting digital transformation objectives.

Firstly, they need to look towards adopting a culture of learning in their teams. A report from Deloitte has shown that organisations with a strong learning culture are 56% more likely to be first to market with a product or solution. Moreover, they will also outperform the profitability of their peers by 17%.

In addition to this approach being a smart business strategy, fostering a culture of learning is the only way to keep pace with the speed of technological innovation and digital transformation. Decades ago, there were two software languages. Today, there are more than 250 languages and they’re constantly being updated, sometimes more than eight times per year. In fact, Java had five updates in the last year and PHP had twenty. Therefore, implementing a clear learning strategy is a business imperative. The good news is that it does not need to be done alone.

Finding a strategic partner

For technology leaders, it’s best practice to find a strategic partner to help develop the technology skills of their team and implement the business’s digital vision. For example, digital on-demand technology learning platforms can provide the skill development tools to keep employees engaged and learning. These platforms combine skill assessments, course libraries, personalised learning paths and analytics to ensure that the workforce can upskill in the technologies that will drive the business forward. They are easily scalable too, with courses taught by world-renowned subject matter experts which employees have accessible to them anytime, anywhere and on any device.

While there are obvious direct benefits to employees honing their existing and upskilling in new skills, on-demand technology learning can support company goals as well. Through personalised measurement tools, employers can understand their organisation’s skills gap and benchmark their workforce against industry standards, addressing learning needs in an efficient and targeted manner. As a result, a digital technology skills platform can help companies stay ahead of the latest technology developments and upskill their workforce to keep pace with innovation. This in turn better positions a business for profitability and gives them a competitive advantage.

Final words

In today’s business environment, a technology strategy must support the overall strategy of the business. The CEO, CMO or CFO of an organisation is unlikely to be a technology expert and will not always be best placed to lead IT efforts. If they do, there is a risk that digital transformation efforts will not succeed or be as successful. Therefore, it’s imperative that those who do have the expertise, such as the CIO or CTO, drive digital transformation strategies and garner the full support of the whole C-suite to ensure its success.

However, technology leaders do not need to carry the burden alone. Working with expert partners alleviates the pressure and ensures that they can follow best practices. In particular, it allows them to develop the technology skills of their team, so they are capable of pushing the business forward and meeting strategic objectives. The digital revolution has led to a changing of the guard for businesses, and it’s technology leaders who will be taking the starring role and driving change.

Author Bio:

“Sean is a highly experienced managing director and sales professional. He is Pluralsight’s senior vice president for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa and oversees the strategic direction, expansion, and operation of commercial and enterprise sales.”

See more stories here.

More information about Irish Tech News and the Business Showcase

FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now gets over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!

Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 16000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.

Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview, or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you and hopefully we can share your story too and reach our global audience.

Irish Tech News

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking