2020 has presented all of us with challenges, especially those in the world of IT. Now in 2021, companies will be able to better prepare and plan for the future.
Budget Concerns
Many IT development teams are anticipating large cuts to their budgets. Many senior managers of corporations large and small waver back and forth between centralized IT or data management, de-centralized to operating departments, or outsourcing all IT completely. In the interest of stabilizing costs but not necessarily reducing overall expenditures, many companies are now considering DMaaS. Data Management as a Service has become increasingly popular as a way to anticipate IT costs as part of an overall operating budget. IT managers predict that their IT teams will be able to reduce their time by thirty-nine percent if incorporating a full DMaaS solution.
Security Issues
Security has been a major concern in the past but as remote access has become the norm, it has jumped up in the scale of IT challenges. IT employees as well as customers need remote access at varying levels and managing different levels of access can be fraught with issues unless a firm plan has been established. The unauthorized access to some of the US government’s most critical databases at Homeland Security not only happened but went unnoticed for months. This shows that no one is totally protected and all security systems should be reviewed and upgraded.
IT Staffing
One positive in this COVID-19 environment is that IT staff may be better appreciated and gaining more respect in the workplace. Some of their frustrations are due to outdated or obsolete technology which can limit their ability to solve problems or integrate solutions. Support for telecommuting can be far slower than calling the IT department down the hall. Calling to have a problem ticket created and then resolved may no longer be an instant fix when the user and the IT support person are no longer at the same location. The implementation of a scaled-up DMaaS solution as mentioned above potentially could free up in-house IT staff to focus on planning and less on infrastructure management.
Business Focus
The importance of data management and data infrastructure continues to grow for all entities, large and small. The issue for many companies is that data management and IT staff become more of a focus than their primary business. IT should be a tool to use that helps to improve and grow your core business. As the corporate world gets more complex, data becomes more important and data systems, data analysis, and the required staff may soon outgrow the core of your business. This is when you should look to hire a company like 10X Consulting Group to relieve the burden of IT management and let you concentrate on your business.
This pandemic will eventually pass but it will not be the last issue that we will all face. We never anticipated how much our lives would change in less than a year. There may be other major concerns in the upcoming year; let us help you navigate them together. We can help you plan for the challenges awaiting us in 2021 and the future.
We can help you avoid the pitfalls and problems that arose in 2020 and help you to set a path and grow your business in the coming years. To help you review and develop a plan for meeting the challenges of 2021 contact a 10X Consulting Group team member by calling 704-931-1056.