As we head into the second half of 2022, CIOs face an unprecedented number of operational challenges, many of which have become more difficult to overcome because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Improving business results, enhancing the experiences of your customers, and modifying business models to accommodate the rapid transformation of digital technology represent three of the most important operational challenges for CIOs across all industries.
Gartner represents a valuable resource for CIOs to tap into for the latest insights to help enhance decision-making skills.
What should be your operational priorities for the rest of 2022?
- Improve the speed of solving IT problems
- Modify your organization’s strategic plan
- Discover the top three strategic priorities
Coping with COVID
Coping with COVID dramatically changed the workforce from one that encouraged in-person interactions to one that created a new paradigm for the remote workplace. For many CIOS, the pandemic provided the motivation to develop more focused business initiatives that addressed the demands of both customers and employees. Savvy CIOs recognized and implemented the technologies that worked best under the remote workplace model. As we enter the second half of 2022, a new COVID variant has emerged to continue putting pressure on CIOs to adapt to the rapid technological changes of the “new normal.”
Rahul Mahna, who is the managing director of the tax, business, and accounting advisory company EisnerAmper, recently stated his team of researchers does not expect the impact of COVID to change much moving forward in 2022. “Back in 2020, when people were first sent home, the initial phase was to empower all workers to work away from the office,” Mahna said. “This next phase will be to create robust hybrid work environments that function effectively and still facilitate secure platforms and delivery systems.”
Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Digital Transformation Initiatives in 2022
Although January is the most popular time to establish operational guidelines and implement new business initiatives, July is a great point in the year to take a step back and make the changes required to stay on course with your vision for digital transformation.
Let’s quickly review the top three strategic priorities for accommodating the transformation underway during the digital era.
1) Attract and Retain the Most Qualified Talent
The success of a CIO partly depends on the quality of the team members in the IT department. Managing director of strategy and analytics at Deloitte Consulting, Lou DiLorenzo, mentioned in an interview that “For many CIOs, this requires careful consideration of their personal brand, a significant shift in culture, mindset, career paths, and reframing the perception of IT within their organizations.”
The key is to first identify the skills required for adapting to the digital transformation of operations. Then, knowing how to recruit the top IT talent helps CIOs fill critical employment voids in the organization. However, the recruitment of top talent is not enough to move your organization to the front of your industry. CIOs also must know how to develop retention policies that keep the best talent in-house for years to come.
2) Emphasize Automation
Quickening the pace of the digital transformation taking place in 2022 and beyond requires focusing on improving your company’s automation capabilities. The ability to automate costly and repetitive processes saves your organization both time and money. Refining how your company automates data processing also can help CIOs temporarily fill the labor gaps that have become much more frequent because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The goal of full automation is not likely to occur for many years. However, CIOs can speed up the process towards full automation by prioritizing company functions that benefit from automation, and then building automation tools into the right applications.
3) All-In for Cloud Technology
CIOs are the leaders dedicated to the evaluation and integration of new cloud technologies. As the CIO of consumer lending technology and cloud integration at Wells Fargo, Steve Hagerman stresses the importance for CIOs to be all-in for cloud technology. “CIOs need to stay on top of the latest product developments to determine which will be most helpful for their company’s digital transformation,” he stated. “We are making cloud transformation a priority because we see the many benefits it can offer our community and customers, including a more scalable workload, innovative practices, and an enhanced customer experience.”
One More Point Moving Forward
Protecting the privacy of customers and employees is more important in 2022 than it has ever been for CIOs. Chily Fachler, who is the CIO of mobile ad attribution provider AppsFlyer explains the importance of protecting privacy. “First and foremost, we need to think about protecting people’s rights to privacy and being extra vigilant in our responsibilities in this area. We need to ensure that our strategy, policies, and processes are focused on protecting our data and our customers’ privacy, and guide and steer our decisions along these lines.”
Additional Resources
Top CISO Priorities: Summer 2022
Microsoft Teams Adds the Ability to Send Short Video Clip Messages
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