Dive Brief:
- The coronavirus pandemic reshaped tech priorities for 95% of companies, according to a survey of global 1,000 IT professionals from software company AppDynamics. Digital transformation efforts that were once part of long-term projects were pushed through in a matter of weeks at 71% of organizations.
- Three-quarters of technologists are concerned about "the longer-term impact of digital transformation initiatives they have had to rush through," according to the survey.
- The main priority of most surveyed organizations is improving the digital customer experience, according to 88% of respondents.
Dive Insight:
Weathering a lengthy stretch of social distancing — while keeping daily operations running — put systems under strain. The digital capabilities organizations planned to implement in the coming years quickly became urgent.
Now, businesses are imagining the next chapter of work life, one where contact tracing tools and other tech-enabled platforms pave the way for a gradual return to the office. Alongside the rest of the C-suite, CIOs will steer the deployment and adoption of new capabilities.
The new focus for IT leaders is on upholding the levels of quality consumers expect, according to the survey. The road to enhancing digital experience presents unique challenges in the pandemic era, including:
- Spikes in traffic
- Boosting customer experience across all channels
- Lack of unified visibility into the performance of the tech stack
- Managing mean time to resolution (MTTR) while the IT department is remote
For six in 10 technologists, managing their daily workload already means more pressure than before, according to the survey, as the demands on digital services increase in pandemic times.
In a post-COVID-19 world, companies don't anticipate returning to the way things once were. The majority of organizations say their focus on risk and disaster planning will increase, according to the survey. Use of remote work tools and technology will remain part of the work experience.
