Dive Brief:
- In the transition away from the physical office, 86% of employees say they understand the role of IT and 88% are satisfied with IT's performance, according to a report from NinjaRMM. The company surveyed 500 U.S.-based employees on June 19.
- Two-thirds of workers say the IT department has updated its priorities within the last three months. By contrast, 15% of employees were never updated on the company's IT priorities.
- About four in 10 respondents say IT spoke with them in the last month regarding top IT priorities and projects. Another 28% of respondents say similar conversations took place within the last three months.
Dive Insight:
An effective response to the COVID-19 crisis calls for the alignment of business and tech goals. Staff awareness of IT priorities is essential as tech takes over more key business processes.
Surveyed employees say the IT project that can deliver the most impact on business is improving Wi-Fi connectivity either at home or at the office, followed closely by providing help setting up digital tools such as Zoom, Slack and Dropbox.
But among IT leaders, concerns loom about their ability to meet the demands of work in pandemic times. Nearly half of decision makers say they're concerned about upholding cybersecurity, and 37% cite challenges in deploying new or existing technologies at scale, according to data from Smartsheet.
In the study, conducted in April and May 2020, more than half of respondents said IT systems were not equipped to handle post-COVID-19 policies.
The economic impact of the crisis means bosses are expecting IT to deliver more value at a lower cost than before. Financial pressures made companies such as Hershey defer more capital-intensive projects. The chocolate maker postponed part of its ERP implementation until next year.
Instead, focus has shifted to remote work technology, according to data from Xerox. While Gartner projects global IT spend to fall by 7.3% year-over-year in 2020, the outlook is still positive for the infrastructure as a service sector, with an expected YoY growth rate of 13.4%.
