Technology leaders in business are facing a paradox: the economy is slowing down, yet the need and demand for technology remains high. In other words, technology remains a consistent investment for decision makers despite the following market conditions:
- Supply chain issues are driving up the costs of doing business.
- High inflation rates are cutting into consumer spending.
- A competitive labor market is making it difficult and expensive to attract and retain top talent.
- Recession fears are tightening organizational budgets.
- Cyberattacks are occurring more frequently and threaten the ability for organizations to operate.
Despite these indicators of a weak economy, technology spending is on the rise. To get a better understanding of how IT teams manage their investments during times of economic uncertainty, InterVision partnered with Gartner Peer Insights to sample 100 IT and information security decision makers. In this article, we summarize the key findings of the study and analyze how businesses can leverage technology to gain a competitive edge.
IT Leaders Expect Their Business To Continue Growing into 2023
Only 15% of respondents reported a moderate (10%) or significant (5%) negative impact to their business due to two quarters of negative economic growth. On the other hand, 60% of businesses anticipate that their market opportunity will improve going into 2023. This is great news and shows that businesses that engage with their IT needs are able to navigate periods of economic turbulence and transition smoothly into periods of growth.
IT Leaders Expect Their Budget To Increase in 2023
To prepare for anticipated opportunities for growth, 60% of IT leaders expect their budgets to increase in 2023. Having access to the right technology is essential for adapting to a changing market. It allows businesses to operate efficiently, which conserves more resources for responding to change. Here are some of the key technologies that IT leaders are investing in to stay agile:
- Application and Innovation Services: Cumbersome legacy applications, services, and systems consume 81% of IT resources for small companies, 77% of IT resources for mid-sized companies, and 71% of IT resources for large companies. Simplifying your tech stack frees up resources and makes it easier for your team to get the job done.
- Managed Cloud Services: Leveraging cloud-based data storage can offload infrastructure costs and improve security. With managed cloud services, your team can work with databases that are organized, secure, and connect easily with your applications.
- Security Services: Cyberattacks can grind your business to a halt, no matter how the economy is performing. With a widespread switch to hybrid work models, companies face a 33% increased chance of a breach caused by vulnerability exploitation. Security services help keep you ahead of threats with Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), security awareness training, risk and access assessment, firewall management, and more.
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Services: Even the most advanced security systems can’t stop every cyber-threat, and businesses that don’t have a recovery plan can struggle to get back on their feet. In fact, 94% of businesses don’t survive catastrophic data loss, 43% never reopen after a cyberattack, and 51% close within two years after an attack. You can prepare your business to bounce back from the worst with regular backups and a disaster recovery plan.
- Managed IT and Network Services: 35% of IT professionals are faced with poor network visibility, which makes it difficult to identify and improve the inefficiencies that hold businesses back. These services provide insight into your network performance and can also manage network and server configuration and upkeep.
When it comes to choosing the right technology for your business, consider what can:
- Increase operating efficiency, reducing costs
- Improve customer experience, increasing retention
- Strengthen security, reducing the likelihood of and damage from cyberattacks
IT Leaders Are Optimizing Their Teams With Managed Services
IT leaders are primarily focused on investing in managed services. 65% of respondents listed managed IT services as their highest priority. This makes sense, as 62% of respondents said that if they were forced to make budget cuts, they would reduce staff first. With managed IT services, you can partner with a team made up of experts on a specific service, whether it’s cloud management, data recovery, or app modernization. This helps you respond quickly to changes because you don’t have to hire and train new members to take on extra responsibilities. You can also use managed services to keep your team size consistent, so you don’t get stuck in a cycle of hiring new members when the economy is growing only to fire them again when the market slows down.
Technology That Helps You Thrive—No Matter What
When the economy takes a turn for the worse, cutting back can be your first instinct. However, you can often turn these challenges into opportunities with the right investments in your technology. Doing so can result in increased productivity and efficiency, improved cybersecurity, and even better customer experience. These benefits are not only helpful in any economy, they’re necessary. In fact, these are among the top results that IT leaders expect to achieve when investing in new technology.
Of course, no two businesses are alike and neither is the technology plan they need to succeed. At InterVision, we take a future forward approach to ensure that your current goals are met in a way that will continue to benefit you down the road. Ready to get the most out of your technology? See what other IT leaders are prioritizing or schedule a consulting call to see where you can find your competitive edge.
