To help ensure your 2020 digital transformation initiatives are successful, it’s important to keep these three IT challenges in mind.
As we move towards a more digital world, many businesses are turning their attention to digital transformation as a means to get ahead of the competition. Digital transformation is used to describe the utilization of new technology to solve business problems, and it’s rapidly becoming a top priority for all types of organizations. According to a recent report from International Data Corporation, global spending on digital transformation is estimated to reach $2.3 trillion in 2023.
Despite this unprecedented spending, many businesses’ digital transformation initiatives have yet to develop into structured programs. Research from Dell Technologies revealed that 78 percent of surveyed business leaders believe that digital transformation should be more widespread throughout their organization. As such, 2020 is set to be an ambitious year for the enterprise as IT leaders put their pedal to the metal on new digital initiatives.
Unfortunately, many organizations simply aren’t set up for success. A recent Gartner report revealed that although companies prioritize and spend on digital initiatives, nearly 70 percent fail to deliver on their promises due to challenges in their IT infrastructure. In order to reap the benefits of a digital transformation initiative, enterprise leaders must be sure they are prepared to tackle the IT hurdles that lie ahead — read on for the three major challenges that may affect your enterprise this year.
Disadvantages of the Gig Economy
The “gig” or “freelancer” economy refers to a workforce ecosystem in which businesses rely on short-term engagements, temporary contracts, and independent contracting as a means of generating productivity. For a while, the gig economy appeared to be the future of the enterprise.
Based on the fact that 72 percent of millennials reported that they prefer to be their own bosses, enterprise leaders made the assumption that they could trust the gig economy to fill their skills gaps with flexible contract workers. And while the gig economy is, in fact, helping solve some of these issues, it’s also creating a slew of new challenges, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive company data.
Although independent contracted teams have their advantages, they usually work remotely, which presents a number of new challenges that IT teams must address. The growing gig economy creates more opportunities to work from home or from coworking spaces, which can leave employees doing business work on unsecured networks. This lack of IT control could unintentionally expose sensitive information to data privacy vulnerabilities, and requires enterprise teams to develop new strategies for keeping data secure.
BYOD Cybersecurity Concerns
2019 was chock-full of strategic cyber threats and ransomware attacks in the enterprise, especially for organizations that have embraced and incorporated BYOD policies in their digital transformation strategies. As it becomes nearly impossible to avoid personal smartphones and tablets in the workplace, even organizations with the most stringent BYOD policies struggle to ward off potential threats.
There are a few reasons why companies that deploy BYOD policies are attractive targets for threat actors. For one, there are huge vulnerability concerns when it comes to personal device infection. Many smartphone and tablet users don’t realize when their device is infected, which may cause them to unknowingly bring malware onto a corporate network.
What’s more, many IT teams don’t have the proper network access control software or policies in place to manage the onslaught of mobile devices that are brought into the workplace. This is compounded by the fact that when an endpoint leaves a company's network, it’s nearly impossible to control whether it's exposed to bad actors lurking on questionable free wireless connections.
The Growing IT Skills Gap
As more enterprises sink dollars into their digital transformations, the demand for competent IT services continues to rise at a rapid clip. Sadly, the skills gap in the IT workforce continues to grow as supply wanes and consumers grow increasingly reliant on software and applications. In fact, experts predict that there will be over five million unfilled IT positions this year alone.
Although some executives argue that the IT skills gap is not as damning as others make it seem, the severity of this shortage is very real to those who actually work in IT. In a recent survey, over 70 percent of IT leaders said their teams experienced decreased efficiency due to the skills shortage. Without robust teams to
Tackling IT Challenges with the Support of Managed Services
As more businesses adopt technology-driven solutions to fix age-old industry problems, enterprise leaders must lean into new digital initiatives. But to ensure the success of said initiatives, CIOs would be wise to do so with the above IT challenges in mind. Unfortunately, some of the challenges themselves present new difficulties in digital transformation implementation — for example, how do IT teams drive successful transformations if they lack the skill sets on their team to do so? Leaning on a managed service provider like Turn-key Technologies, Inc. (TTI) for support is an excellent option for many organizations facing these challenges.
With thirty years of experience delivering IT support to enterprises of all shapes and sizes, TTI’s award-winning experts can help your enterprise tackle whatever IT issues come your way. Whether you need help deploying new network access software or developing policies to support your BYOD initiatives, our team of professionals is ready to help you get started with your digital transformation — contact us today to learn more.