The challenges that IT leaders will face in 2022 have been significantly impacted by the disruption caused by COVID-19 such as resistance to digital adoption, bridging the gap between technology and skill set, finding the right talent, attrition, cloud security and so on. For the second year in a row, IT leaders have played a key role in helping organizations to stabilize IT, reduce overheads, manage employee engagement, and meet changing customer demands.
IT leaders continue to play a valuable role in driving digital transformation across the organization. With the increasing talent gap, remote working and changing technology landscape, the question that needs to be addressed is ‘How will IT leaders maintain the momentum of their organisation’s business goals’? So, let’s look at a few challenges that IT leaders will face in 2022.
Talent Shortage
IT leaders across the globe feel that competition for talent will be fierce in the on-going year. The pandemic disruption has led many people to re-evaluate their career paths. And due to increasing demand, top talents come up with their own set of requirements such as working in a hybrid model, or wanting to completely work from home, with additional perks. These demands have further fuelled the talent shortage and made it more challenging to acquire or retain incumbent talent pool.
Digital Disruption
Digital disruption has caused organizations to re-evaluate their business strategies to find new revenue generation opportunities. Transitioning to an agile methodology and tweaking business models to favour changing technology landscape and customer dynamics could help IT leaders to foster revenue growth.
Friction to Embrace Innovative Technology
IT leaders must design a strategy to phase out legacy infrastructure and make way for cloud ready solutions. Investments in legacy infrastructure with increasing overheads might cause digital transformation goals to look far-fetched. This year, due to the hype around digital and cloud adoption, organizations with traditional IT systems might face resistance and friction to adopt and embrace new trends and innovative technologies.
Living With Hybrid Work Models
Hybrid models are here to stay. IT leaders must create business and delivery models around permutations that rise from hybrid work structure. New models born out of the pandemic have spurred more collaboration between business teams that may be working remotely and/or in the office. IT leaders must build solutions that encourage inclusive collaboration than a traditional top-down approach to business. Investing in cloud-based tools can offer greater agility and ability to pivot as necessary and reduce lag. Designing a robust structure with hybrid work model in mind, IT leaders can effectively keep the revenue flowing and be ready for future disruptions.
Preparing for Web 3.0
It’s the age of NFTs, cryptocurrencies, virtual work environments, etc. Web 3.0 is born out of the need to create a system to facilitate services via internet directly without routing it through third-party corporations. This has been pivotal in terms of safeguarding user data and privacy and to prevent data leak in case of a breach. Blockchain is the foundation on which web 3.0 will thrive and the trend will stay for decades to come.
IT leaders must evaluate business strategy and outcomes by keeping web 3.0 in sight. Taking proactive measures to design an outlook and solutions that leverages this technology will foster business growth. Blockchain and web 3.0 and its impact on organizations will pose as a challenge for the coming future.
Conclusion
2022 is a year that will see IT leaders take the helm and lead the organization at the forefront to tackle new challenges brought about by changing customer and technology dynamics. CIOs must create strategies to address attrition, employee engagement, hybrid workplaces, customer experience, and technology modernization to effectively stay on top of the game and enhance business outcomes.
Neelesh Kripalani is the Chief Technology Officer of Clover Infotech.