As
organizations continue to adapt to and embrace new ways of working, IT
teams are facing unexpected challenges. According to a new survey from Snow Software, 92% of IT leaders report
their organizations were moving or had already moved to a hybrid work
model. Yet only 34% said enabling the shift to hybrid work was their
department's primary focus over the next 12 months. The data suggests IT
leaders may be underestimating the unique challenges of hybrid work,
especially as their teams are already facing issues such as rising costs
and insufficient security. The study surveyed more than 400 IT leaders
from organizations with over 500 employees to determine the current
state of hybrid work and hybrid technologies.
"Despite
the significant transition that organizations have faced over the past
year, it seems that the future of hybrid work is putting IT leaders in a
position where they will once again be required to quickly shift gears
and adapt to a new reality," said Alastair Pooley, Chief Information
Officer at Snow. "While IT teams are planning and budgeting to enable
their businesses, many don't have the full picture of what their
organizations will need when it comes to supporting a truly hybrid
workforce. What we've learned over the past 18 months is that
understanding how current technology investments are being utilized and
what areas need more support is critical for teams to manage the pivot
to a hybrid work environment when they are ready and able."
Key findings include:
- Majority of IT leaders are embracing hybrid work but already facing a new array of challenges. When
asked about their feelings towards the larger trend of organizations
moving to remote work, 57% of IT leaders said they were excited and 44%
indicated they believe it was a move in the right direction. However,
the shift has not been easy, even in the early stages. IT leaders report
controlling and optimizing IT costs (18%), reining in shadow IT (16%)
and managing cybersecurity threats (13%) as the most challenging aspects
of supporting or transitioning to hybrid work. CIOs and C-level
executives in particular are concerned about shadow IT, with 26% noting
it as the biggest challenge posed by hybrid work.
- IT priorities are now focused on growth initiatives. After
a year spent enabling change for their workforce, just 34% of IT
leaders said supporting hybrid work would be their top priority over the
next 12 months. Instead, respondents are turning their focus to larger
corporate initiatives. IT leaders report that their top priorities will
be enabling competitive differentiation (57%), reducing or optimizing IT
costs (55%) and managing digital transformation initiatives (54%).
Additionally, 48% of respondents said accelerating cloud adoption and
migration was a priority, suggesting this will continue to be an
important area of focus despite the rapid shifts that occurred in 2020.
- Following increased IT investments in 2020, IT leaders will spend even more in 2021. One
area where hybrid work is having a big impact is IT budgets. When asked
if they expect additional funding to support new ways of working, 84%
of IT leaders said yes. Another 13% said they expected budget to stay
flat while just 2% face budget cuts and 1% are unsure. When asked what
they would spend additional budget on, 37% said additional IT staff,
followed by 18% investing in SaaS applications and 17% investing in
cloud infrastructure.
- Hybrid employees expected to become a bigger burden on IT. IT
leaders do expect hybrid work models will change employees' technology
needs, with 34% saying it will increase their use of IT resources.
Despite spending less time in the office, only 10% think hybrid work
will decrease employee use of IT resources. Another 18% believe it will
increase department-led technology purchases, which can contribute to
shadow IT if the right policies, processes and staff are not in place.
- SaaS applications take center stage and require greater visibility and management. Unsurprisingly
70% of leaders reported that their investment in SaaS has increased
over the past 12 months. Just 2% reported that it decreased and 28% said
it stayed the same. IT continues to face issues with visibility and
overall management of SaaS applications, which could make the transition
and enablement of hybrid work more difficult. Nearly half said that
controlling SaaS sprawl was their biggest challenge, while 26% said it
was discovering unmanaged applications. When asked about the most
impactful SaaS applications at their organization over the past year,
32% of IT leaders said Microsoft 365 followed by Google Workspace (20%),
Zoom (19%) and Salesforce (11%).
For more information about Snow's latest survey, please visit https://www.snowsoftware.com/blog/study-hybrid-work-here-stay-bringing-its-own-mix-complexities.