The year of 2017 saw major developmental challenges for CIOs around the world.
While 2017 saw some major challenges for CIOs, 2018 will show new challenges CIOs must focus on. The digital transformation of companies is a top priority for CIOs, especially to keep up with changing technology in the business world.
The year of 2017 saw several new and major challenges and priorities for CIOs and for CIOs to be successful, it’s important to keep up with new opportunities available to them. New opportunities are necessary to keep up with especially because CIOs should expect to see digital revenues double in the next five years.
Top IT Challenges 2017
- Evolving Security Landscape
- Digital Transformation
- Talent War
- Growing Data
- Innovation
Since 2015, the security landscape has been evolving at a steady rate and data breaches are becoming more severe. 2017 saw two levels of security challenges. The first was protecting business data from security vulnerabilities and the second was the internet of things (IoT). The increasing number of devices connecting to the web has given businesses brand new security threats to monitor.
Before 2017, less than half of CIOs had taken the digital leader role within their company. It was necessary for CIOs to take over this role in 2017 to digitally transform their organizations. 2017 also saw technology changes widen the skills gap faster thus making talent the biggest issue standing in the way of CIOs. Getting a handle on growing data was still an issue for CIOs in 2017 and this was an issue due to the fact that we live in a data-driven world.
CIO Challenges 2018
- Turning data into a Competitive Advantage
- Balance Security with Accessibility
- Merge Old and New Technologies
- Consistent Innovation
- Address Skills Gap
- Stay Current with Tech Trends
There are a few challenges CIOs are facing in 2018. The first one is turning data into a competitive advantage. Data is essential for businesses to not only obtain but also know what to do with it. Companies that don’t know exactly what to do with the data collected may become data rich but risk being insight poor. Without proper insights, companies miss out on opportunities to make their company better.
Another challenge in 2018 for CIOs is balancing security with accessibility. Security is important for a business to maintain the trust of their customers. Security breaches increase a company’s vulnerabilities and decrease their value so security must be a top priority of CIOs and IT managers in 2018. Merging old and new technologies are essential for companies to do to keep up with the digital transformation. Old and new technologies are vastly different so CIOs may have a challenge merging the two but it is necessary to do to keep companies up to date.
CIO Priorities 2018
- Establish/Re-Establish Digital Cred
- IT Risk Management
- Focus on One Aspect the Company Does Best
- Automate Everything
- Cybersecurity Rating
- Reposition Products as Subscription Services
- Machine Learning
- Blockchain
- Technology Education for Employees
- Innovation
In our digital world, CIOs must establish or re-establish their digital cred. If a company doesn’t have a decent digital cred or isn’t underway in their digital transformation, they will lose out to other companies that are. IT risk management is important to focus on in 2018 and CIOs should focus on information security. The year of 2017 saw major security breaches forcing companies to think about security differently and more seriously. Another priority for 2018 is to focus on what the company does best. A jack of all trades is not better than a master of one. A company that can’t focus on and master one thing will lose business to other companies that can. Automation should be a huge priority in 2018. Automating anything and everything that can be is the best way to allow employees to focus on higher-value work.
The year of 2017 saw some major security breaches and forced CIOs to rethink the way they approach information security. Properly managed IT services are is the best way to ensure a company is successful in a digitally transforming world. CIOs may see some new challenges in 2018 but these challenges are necessary to overcome if companies want to keep up with progressing IT infrastructure. 2018 may offer new challenges for CIOs but successful ones will overcome these challenges with ease.
