Technology Reseller v32

01732 759725 08 TECH TRENDS Digital transformation advances by five years in just three months Covid-19 has accelerated UK companies’ digital communications strategies by an average of 5.3 years in just three months, according to a new study by cloud communications platform provider Twilio. In its survey of enterprise decision- makers, 96% of UK respondents said that the pandemic had sped up their company’s digital transformation, with 66% claiming it had done so ‘a great deal’. The COVID-19 Digital Engagement Report highlights the extent to which Covid-19 has broken down traditional barriers to adoption, with 77% saying it has led to increases in their digital transformation budget – ‘dramatically’ so for 36% of respondents. UK respondents also report an easing of barriers, such as lack of a clear strategy (37%), getting executive approval (35%), reluctance to replace legacy software (35%) and lack of time (33%). Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio, said: “Over the last few months, we’ve seen years-long digital transformation roadmaps compressed into days and weeks in order to adapt to the new normal as a result of COVID-19. Our customers in nearly every industry have had to identify new ways to communicate with their customers and stakeholders essentially overnight. We believe the solutions being built today will be the standard for digital engagement in the future.” Twilio surveyed 2,500 enterprise decision-makers, of which 300 we re in the UK. Twilio.com The price of failure Much is made of the benefits of a successful digital transformation project, but what happens when things go wrong? A new study by enterprise software company IFS ( Digital Transformation Investment in 2020 and Beyond: Factors That Will Impact the Success or Failure of Technology Investments in the Post- Pandemic Era ) reveals that it takes almost all companies (92%) a minimum of a year to get over an IT project failure, with 34% requiring two to three years. Ramifications of failure cited by UK respondents include: n Financial loss (25%); n Loss of customers (24%); n Loss of market share (23%); n Reduced headcount (20%); and n Complete shutdown of critical business departments (18%). A failed IT project can deter future investment in similar projects (cited by 26%) and lead to budget cuts in other areas (46%). ifs.com UK organisations resilient despite challenge of supporting remote workers Following the events of the first six months of 2020, almost nine out of 10 IT decision-makers in the UK feel confident in their organisation’s ability to withstand another unanticipated crisis, with 59% feeling ‘somewhat confident’ and 28% feeling ‘very confident’, according to the new Evolution of IT report from LogicMonitor. The cloud-based provider of IT infrastructure monitoring surveyed 500 IT decision-makers in the UK, North America and Australia/New Zealand to find out how IT departments around the world were impacted by – and have responded to – the coronavirus pandemic. Its findings show that 54% of IT leaders globally initially experienced IT disruptions or outages to software, productivity and collaboration tools as they shifted to remote work in the first half of 2020. More than two thirds have found the new remote working model challenging: n 70% find it hard to support a remote workforce; n 70% find it challenging to keep data secure as their organisation increasingly relies on the cloud; and n 69% find it challenging to ensure there is enough network bandwidth available to avoid service disruptions. Based on what they have learnt during the current Covid-19 pandemic, IT decision-makers are investing in productivity tools and expanding their use of cloud-based solutions and platforms to maintain business continuity. By 2025, UK IT leaders expect 79% of their workload to be in the cloud, compared to 62% prior to COVID-19. The corresponding global figures are 78% and 65%. https://www.logicmonitor.com/ resource/evolution-of-it The problem with remote working Since lockdown, the transition to remote working has been both popular and successful. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t also had its fair share of problems, as a Nexthink survey into the impact of remote working on IT makes clear. According to its findings: n 43% of IT teams saw an increase in the number of support tickets from employees; n 38% of workers have had issues with VPN access; n 37% of workers have had issues with Wi-Fi connectivity; n 35% of workers have had issues with video conferencing apps; n 37% of workers felt they didn’t have the right tools to get their work done when the transition was first made; and n 35% of IT leaders felt restricted in the support they could offer remote employees due to a reliance on on-premises software. Home working security risk Nearly two thirds (65%) of UK businesses are anticipating an increase in phishing and breach attempts, as half (48%) admit that their current cyber security policies are not fit for a 100% home-working model. In a survey of 200 senior decision- makers commissioned by privileged access management specialist Centrify, 75% said they had provided employees with formal guidance or training on the security risks of working from home; 59% say they now treat outsourced IT and other third parties as an equal cyber security risk as 100% remote working employees. Half are planning to hire new IT staff or security experts to improve their security processes. Agility replaces innovation as main driver of cloud communications Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of agility for business survival, reinforcing what was already a growing requirement for modern organisations. In Mitel’s third annual European survey of 1,000+ IT decision-makers, conducted between November 2019 and January 2020, agility overtook innovation as the Number One driver for migration of communications to the cloud, cited by 35% of respondents (46% in the UK), up from 16% in 2018. Innovation slipped to Tech trends: ICT in the UK today 2020 REPORT Evolution of IT ResearchReport Howglobal ITdepartmentsare adapting in theeraof remotework European Survey about Unified Communications (UCaaS) Final report | February 2, 2020 Glenn Weinstein, Twilio