Key Challenges Facing IT leaders In 2023|Hubbado

2023 has seen challenging economic circumstances, making it harder for CIOs and tech leaders to balance the technological challenges facing their businesses with making the right investments to sustain and power growth.

Some challenges are continuations of trends we’ve experienced in 2022 and as we move into 2024 we'll see new difficulties and obstacles for CIOs and IT leaders to overcome.

Five crucial challenges for CIOs in 2023

At Hubbado we are lucky enough to have access to a community of highly skilled, expert consultants. Here’s what they predict will be the biggest challenges set to impact CIOs in 2023, and how best to overcome them:

1. Growing threats to cyber security
The UK government has announced that one in three businesses now experience a cyber security attack at least once a week. This growing risk is exacerbated by remote working trends, an increase in the amount of sensitive data collected and held by organisations, and a wider shift to online business driven by changing consumer demand.

Reducing risk, protecting data and improving the cyber resilience of networks should be high priorities for CIOs heading into 2023. First steps should include getting senior level buy-in and presenting the business case for increased investment in security. Digital resilience is no longer simply a technical issue.

From there, tech leaders can take practical steps to increase resilience and mitigate risk by implementing more robust security procedures and processes, leveraging new tech such as blockchain, improving employee training and meeting changing regulatory demand.

2. Greater demand for tech sustainability
With the COP27 conference in November 2022, it’s important not to underestimate the increasing importance of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) issues to business leaders, investors and consumers and tech sustainability will be critical for controlling the wider environmental impact of business.

80% of investors say that ESG concerns are an important factor when it comes to investment decision-making. But the greatest pressure on the tech sector to improve sustainability is likely to come from consumers, as research by Morning Consult found that the majority of consumers expect the tech industry to drive innovation in environmental sustainability.

Pressure on CIOs to increase sustainability efforts also comes from inside the boardroom as businesses attempt to reduce environmental impact in ways that are both cost-effective and efficient. Tech leaders must ensure they are aware of and actively working to reduce the environmental effects of technology, particularly when it comes to energy usage.

3. An increasing pace of technological change
Given the already fast pace of digital and technological change experienced over the last few years, it almost seems impossible that the speed of technological change should be capable of increasing in 2023. However, that is exactly what we’re seeing.

Assorted technologies - AI, edge computing, Cloud, the Metaverse, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, blockchain and decentralised finance, advanced analytics and more – look set to fundamentally change the way we live and work in the near future.

Tech leaders must be prepared to invest in and deploy forward-thinking technologies and digital solutions for their organisations to be able to maintain competitiveness, optimise efficiency and meet business-critical goals. Considering the business case for emerging tech will be crucial to budgeting and getting the greatest ROI.

4. The spending squeeze
IT and tech budgets are set to increase going into 2023 by an average of 5.1%. However, this is below projected inflation rates in the UK. This is indicative of one of the greatest challenges facing CIOs in the coming year; how to do more with less.

Businesses expect to be able to keep pace with change, remain secure and increase sustainability but doing so while getting the greatest return on investment will require tech leaders to be increasingly savvy in the choices they make.

A focus on improving operational excellence will help reduce costs and increase the value of digital transformation projects. Improving tool efficiency will help optimise spend.CIOs might also like to focus on improving data management and data strategies to drive business decisions and growth.

5. Widening talent gaps
Amongst tech leaders surveyed by Gartner, the talent shortage is widely considered to be amongst the biggest barriers to the adoption and deployment of new tech. Resourcing strategies in the tech sector must focus not just on attracting new talent, but also on developing and retaining it as well.

To build sustainable talent strategies, businesses should invest in reskilling programmes that focus on developing future-proof skills in their current workforce. Skills set to be in high demand for 2023 include network deployment, network design and implementation, and data centre skills.

Tech leaders should also consider new talent sources to access the skills they need. Augmenting your current team with expert consultants can be a cost-effective and agile solution.

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