New Snow 2023 IT Priorities Report: 3 Actions CIOs Should Take Now to Prepare for the New Year
Today, Snow Software released the results of its 2023 IT Priorities Report. For this third annual report, Snow surveyed over 800 IT leaders in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia to understand their priorities, how their roles have changed and what they expect in 2023.
You can read the full report here, but throughout the findings, we found three key actions CIOs and IT leaders should consider as they close out 2022 and prepare to start the year off right.
1. Get ahead of your priorities and stay disciplined.
With the current macroeconomic environment (rising inflation, economic uncertainty, geopolitical uncertainty, etc.), it is no surprise that the #1 IT priority for 2023 is reducing IT costs followed by delivering digital transformation and minimizing security risks. But delivering digital transformation and reducing IT costs can be conflicting actions as digital transformation and innovation often require investment and resources.
With 94% of IT leaders noting that innovation remains a top priority, and 85% of respondents saying there is an expectation to innovate faster and demonstrate ROI, CIOs are being pulled in a million directions. They are juggling many timely problems and priorities, all while ensuring they are meeting individual goals and expectations.
Want to start 2023 strong? Now is the time to hone in on what your priorities are for 2023 and specifically Q1. Between now and the end of the year, clearly define your IT priorities and ensure you and your stakeholders are aligned. IT leaders will need discipline and focus entering 2023 but that must start now to make true impact.
Here’s the full list of what those IT leaders surveyed indicated as their top priorities for 2023:
2. Figure out what you don’t know. Visibility is imperative.
At Snow, we often talk about visibility, and we often say, “You can’t protect/control what you can’t see.” Throughout the 2023 IT Priorities Report, we discuss visibility because of the huge impact it can have on IT leaders’ priorities. If controlling cost and security risks are in the top priorities of the year, IT leaders must also prioritize visibility.
In fact, 76% of survey respondents say business units are procuring far more cloud and SaaS than IT knows about. Technology procurement is no longer controlled by IT, and organizations need to embrace this reality and put into place processes to gain a line of sight into what is being added to the organization’s technology landscape. A couple of key steps are:
- Ensure it’s easy for employees to get what they need, so they work in tandem with IT to get the tools they need for their jobs.
- Consider easily accessible, approved-use lists and policies. Software or SaaS application portals are even better.
- Leverage technology to discover applications in use.
- Educate and collaborate with business units, so employees and department leaders understand the impact of technology procurement.
For other ideas on how to gain more visibility, check out this blog.
3. Determine what data you need and make it actionable.
We live in a data-driven age, where every aspect of a business can be tracked from how many people enter the building to how many times someone visits a particular page on the Intranet. But trying to understand blind spots due to siloed data and identify the right data are still huge challenges for IT leaders to overcome in 2023.
While 96% of IT leaders said their managers and/or direct reports have the data they need to make good business decisions, this doesn’t mean they have actionable insights to determine what to do next. In fact, nearly nine in ten (89%) IT leaders say IT must invest in tools and technologies to extract value from their data and turn it into actionable intelligence.
If you don’t have a tool to gain actionable intelligence, now is the time. Data-driven decisions will be essential for CIOs given the challenging landscape ahead.
To view the full 2023 IT Priorities Report, download it here.
Additionally, if you are like many IT leaders and facing mounting pressures to identify cost-management drivers for 2023, get a head start by:
- Registering for this free, on-demand webinar on executive challenges in 2023, cost optimization, and avoidance strategies across cloud spend, hardware, SaaS, sustainability and more.
- Additionally, tune in to a conversation with Becky Trevino, Snow EVP of Product, and AJ Witt, ITAM Review Analyst as they discuss ways to reduce waste and increase spend efficiency in this newest podcast episode.