With the accelerated tempo of digital transformation, coupled with the unprecedented arrival of the pandemic pushing enterprises in the direction of a hybrid work tradition, IT leaders have performed a key half in protecting enterprise afloat these final two years. The ensuing redefinition of their position is influencing their priorities as they put together for the 2023 monetary yr.
One of many largest adjustments has been to deliver them nearer to enterprise items.
“We’re on a digital transformation journey that may remodel our buyer, accomplice, and worker expertise by specializing in inclusion, innovation, operational excellence, and agile methodologies,” says Dharmendra Rangain, CIO for India and neighbouring international locations at Cisco Methods.
At engineering and expertise companies firm Cyient, CIO Pallavi Katiyar says that CIOs are intently built-in with enterprise and are extra like companions in the present day, making the framework for deciding priorities comparatively simpler. “We (CIOs) are working very intently with the enterprise to grasp their priorities, focus, and necessities. That helps CIOs to determine and work on options that must be enabled for enterprise to fulfill their goals.”
CIO’s prime concern: cybersecurity
Cybersecurity will proceed to be a prime precedence for Indian CIOs within the yr forward, in accordance with a current survey of expertise executives by Gartner: 64% of Indian CIOs surveyed mentioned they’ll enhance their spending on security-related applied sciences in 2022, increased than the worldwide common of 57%.
The IT leaders CIO India spoke with advised the same story.
For Cyient’s Katiyar, cybersecurity is the topmost concern: “The menace is actual. It’s one thing that has been protecting me awake for the final couple of years.” She says it’s foolhardy for anybody to imagine they’re secure even when they’ve the world’s main cyber safety options.
She is at the moment specializing in enhancing total cybersecurity by working very intently along with her staff. “We be certain that we construct cybersecurity and knowledge safety into each side of the appliance infrastructure resolution that we’re delivering,” she says.
Her colleague, CTO Rajaneesh R Kini, agrees. “Our priorities for the yr are to reinforce our cybersecurity structure utilizing knowledge entry patterns to raised perceive safety threats for IT and OT methods.” Kini is working to make the corporate extra agile and construct a system that may allow the group to leverage knowledge to create insights that drive actual enterprise worth. He’s additionally exploring AI instruments with the purpose of offering employees with a self-service platform for supporting resolution making.
This monetary yr, Katiyar plans to take a position considerably in constructing cybersecurity capabilities in-house however realises that alone received’t be sufficient: “It’s going to be an unimaginable process to have all the data, functionality, and talent set in-house, so it’s additionally vital to have the proper vendor and accomplice ecosystem in place to assist bridge the hole.”
Cisco’s Rangain says now’s the time to make bolder selections, assume newer tasks that may increase buyer and worker expertise, and guard towards evolving cyberattacks. Nevertheless, Rangain is properly conscious that the hurdles and gaps for IT leaders will solely widen: “From constantly bolstering safety structure to discovering and retaining the proper expertise, the complexities and alternatives are lots, as we reside in a time of innovation and disruption.”
Sustainability
Rangain has narrowed down three prime priorities for the yr: safety, sustainability, and strengthening current expertise providing a seamless offline and on-line expertise: “Safety will proceed to be our prime concern. Fortifying our safety portfolio ensures the enterprise is protected, whether or not it’s the company workplace or the house workplace.
“As for our dedication to sustainability, shifting to the cloud is likely one of the best methods for a company to cut back the environmental influence of its knowledge centre and IT operations,” he says.
At Khatabook, a supplier of accounting software program for small companies, VP of Engineering Gaurav Lahoti additionally ranks info and knowledge safety as his prime precedence. Lahoti has activated a number of initiatives at Khatabook to safe person, worker, and group knowledge. This monetary yr he plans to put money into strengthening the safety on endpoints of the units with staff. “For the security of inner knowledge round growth, we’re implementing new gadget administration options. We’ve additionally enabled safety with tighter entry management throughout the merchandise, defining who has what degree of entry and automating the entry controls for seamless operations,” he says.
The human issue
“As they are saying, ‘You’re solely as robust as your weakest hyperlink.’ Human errors, unintentional, can result in safety failures, so we’ve got designed coaching for workers on methods to use tooling correctly and what pitfalls to keep away from. We’ll do that on an intermittent foundation, and each new worker who joins shall be required to take this coaching,” he provides.
Cybersecurity tops the listing of issues for Monish Darda, CTO and co-founder at Icertis, a developer of contract administration software program. This yr, he plans to put money into three of its parts: infrastructure safety, platform safety, and compliance and knowledge safety.
At Tata Consultancy Providers (TCS), CIO Abhijit Mazumder’s main principal priorities for this monetary yr are organizational resiliency and cybersecurity. “Resiliency is a steady journey and I’ve to proceed to put money into it. Rising agility of the group is vital for me,” he says. “Although we’ve got invested considerably in constructing the tradition of agility inside the group, I believe there’s extra to our journey. We undertake processes that may be digitized in order that we will enhance the general productiveness of the group.”
Provide chain
Cybersecurity can also be the highest precedence for Huhtamaki India’s head of IT, Udit Pahwa, Given the way in which menace landscapes are altering, he believes a protection mechanism is the way in which ahead. He’s additionally planning on investing in training and consciousness for all customers to cut back the chance of a breach.
Nevertheless, there’s additionally one thing else on Pahwa’s agenda for the yr: provide chain planning. “Options within the areas of provide chain planning and demand forecasting to scheduling are areas of focus in present yr. The thought is to have clear visibility into the enterprise and organize for a similar; buyer fulfilment on time and in full is the principle goal.”
Expertise retention
Indian IT companies in the present day are seeing the best attrition charges — and the ensuing demand for expert IT employees has led to elevated payroll prices.
At expertise consultancy Thoughtworks, Chief Digital Officer Swapnil Deshpande says that after compliance, cybersecurity, and knowledge privateness, one among his prime issues for the yr forward is having the ability to reply to adjustments quicker. “With enterprise evolving quick and expertise evolving quicker, one among my issues is having the ability to construct an IT division that may match or surpass the present fee of change. Working an operationally environment friendly group with the assistance of information will allow key leaders to make use of actionable insights and foresight for higher resolution making.”
Deshpande says that to assist clear up this difficulty, expertise acquisition and retention will proceed to be a precedence. He additionally plans to work in the direction of digital transformation with platforms and knowledge to considerably enhance the interior IT effectiveness and productiveness, thus serving to key enterprise leaders make higher selections to run and develop the corporate.
Expertise growth and retention have emerged as key issues for Kiran Marri, vp and chief scientist at IT companies supplier CSS Corp. “My prime priorities embody enablement and use of expertise to empower staff by equipping them with the required expertise to resolve shopper issues. My purpose is to organize staff for a technology-based future and assist them hone and purchase wanted expertise now and shifting ahead.”
Natarajan Radhakrishnan, president and international chief innovation officer at Hinduja World Options, says lack of digitally expert expertise has been a serious concern for IT leaders, and hiring expertise completely from exterior sources has grow to be extraordinarily troublesome. “CIOs encourage staff inside the group to upskill themselves in mandatory applied sciences. This methodology future-proofs the careers of staff by equipping them with related expertise. It is usually cost-effective for the group,” he says.
Productiveness
A technique round that’s to cut back reliance on employees: “One of many key priorities for CIOs is accelerating and advancing the automation processes inside the group to cope with crises such because the pandemic,” he provides.
For Lendingkart CTO Giridhar Yasa, too, productiveness is a serious concern, and the hybrid working enforced by the pandemic has helped with that. “Not spending hours caught in visitors, and having the ability to select their work location, have helped enhance worker productiveness. Versatile hours of working and digital conferences appear to be working properly. And so the precedence for this yr is to efficiently implement a hybrid working mannequin, getting ready worker rosters to divide time spent remotely and within the workplace.”
For the approaching monetary yr, then, the main target for these CIOs is on holding on to their knowledge and to their expert employees and introducing the instruments that may allow their enterprises to make best use of every within the days to return.
