Another year, another set of fires you’ve had to put out as an IT leader. Your leadership position comes with the ability to see the big picture. However, it also leaves you susceptible to issues that are brought to your attention too late.
To avoid this pitfall in 2019, keep in mind and plan for these five IT challenges.
CIO Challenges for 2019
1. Rising IT Security Threats
Malicious threats to the integrity of IT infrastructure will only get worse as 2019 rolls on. There are simply more people with more resources and technology availability that can do harm. They’ll use these resources to gain entry into organisational networks and steal intellectual property for all manner of reasons”competitive advantage, money, sabotage, etc.
While some of these nefarious parties may use direct digital attacks, such as hacking, many will exploit internal weaknesses. Notably, employees are opportunistic targets, with the likes of phishing emails offering would-be attackers a back door into an organisation’s œsecure network. In addition, employees may fall prey to impersonation attempts through phone, email, or other digital means, and unknowingly divulge sensitive information.
Doubling down on network security enhancements will help. But IT leaders will need to develop strict behavioural and network policies for employees while on the company network.
2. Growing Data
Getting a handle on data is also important. Companies are continually and increasingly producing larger and larger volumes of data”in the terabytes. However, the stored data quickly becomes out of date or replaced by a newer version or variant, making it redundant. This is a prevalent yet largely ignored problem. Sure, storage is relatively cheap, but simply housing the data is not a solution. CIOs and IT leaders will need to develop formal data management processes to ensure the data their workforce creates is usable.
3. Increased Workforce Desire for Software Solutions
The software landscape has expanded in recent years, with more products (and variants of those products) available to address all manner of business challenges. Like kids in a candy store, so too has workforce demand for these applications grown, with teams and individuals clamoring for solutions that cater to their seemingly unique needs. This has placed increasing pressure on CIOs to provide virtually untethered access to these products and constantly update to the latest versions.
CIOs must not simply acquiesce to the bevy of requests from its workforce. They need to implement a process to help assess requirements and determine whether bringing in a new technology solution is warranted. For example, there may be another product already being used in the organisation that sufficiently addresses a request. The requestor could be added to the licensing or seat count of that product instead of introducing an entirely new solution and vendor into the mix. This reduces technological complexity and costs within the organisation.
4. Greater Complexity and Cost in System Integration
There’s a growing desire to be ever more integrated with organisational systems. As a result, there’s the increased headache of stitching systems together and keeping the information flowing freely between the systems.
Making these integrations work is troublesome. Data compatibility is an issue”being able to read and understand data between systems, such as mismatches in formatting and terminology. There’s also the speed of data transfer/sharing and the reliability of the connection. Beyond making integration work is the associated costs. It takes lots of resources to produce, maintain, and update the integration, not to mention the purchase of supporting software to assist the connectivity process.
Want to avoid any hiccups and cost overruns in integrating your mission-critical systems? Factum can help. Schedule your free discovery call today.
5. Maintaining Internal IT Knowledge
It’s becoming continually more difficult to retain sufficient IT knowledge within the organisation to effectively run, maintain, and update systems. Technology refreshes and updates are faster, and it’s hard to keep up with the changes. Your IT staff is always chasing the latest and greatest tech, which is beneficial from strategic and operational standpoints. In turn, though, you have to pay them more to retain that knowledge and keep it within the organisation. Because when they leave, that knowledge is gone.
Overcome your most pressing IT challenges with ease. Let Factum help.
Factum is a boutique consultancy with a solid track record of success in helping CIOs and IT leaders with change and transformation, software selection and implementation, and other key organisational areas. Our experienced consultants have worked across numerous industries with Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 companies. We use what we’ve learned and developed from past engagements to bring greater value to organisations like yours.
Don’t face 2019 alone. Schedule your free discovery call today to see how we can help you address your latest IT manager challenges.
We also wrote about changes CIO need to make in 2019 to succeed in their role. Check that out here.