2020 will definitely be remembered as the year of a global health crisis due to Covid-19. If it is certain that the economy in general - and VSEs and SMEs in particular - have largely suffered from this context, a new way of thinking about work has also emerged, which disrupts the traditional model.
Information technologies play an essential role during the lockdown by allowing the continuity of activities. In addition to the human side of things, which is largely affected, technical means had to be found to support these changes. CIOs have understood this; Covid-19 has allowed them to accelerate the digital transformation in companies in order to adapt their processes, for optimal productivity and communication despite the context.
The role of the CIO is becoming more and more central in the company, since digitalization now affects all areas of its activity and the various business lines must increasingly refer to it, including the financial department in a logic of understanding and budget control.
With the Covid 19 pandemy, many employees now work from home, which does not facilitate the creation of links between employees nor the integration of new employees. This is why companies have to set up digitized processes to maintain this link.
For the sake of health security, telecommuting has experienced an unprecedented boom. Not very widespread until then, it has been democratized in order to limit meetings between employees and the concentration of potential contaminated people.
In the aftermath of the crisis, these adaptive measures will not disappear. The main challenge for business leaders will be to find a new model, integrating the adjustments made during the health crisis into the day-to-day functioning of the company.
Thus, in general, the evolutions will be focused on :
Digital work environments have exploded with the health crisis. In this remote environment, the implementation of SaaS tools that support modern and agile workflows becomes paramount.
Indeed, with the current health crisis, technology managers have been faced with a wide range of multi-dimensional requests such as redirecting customer requests to digital channels or reconfiguring supply chains to fit the new business organization.
Thus the, CIOs had to:
These changes will continue beyond the health crisis and will likely be the norm in the future. Companies that are able to adapt or even anticipate these changes will have a better chance of thriving.
One of the axes of development may be for the company to focus on the customer experience, by focusing more on the human element and building a relationship of trust. In addition, value creation will be based on the continuity between the physical and digital worlds.
The digitization of businesses and operations means an explosion of SaaS software used internally. Thus, IT departments must ensure the security of the use of these new tools and make sure that no breach occurs. This means training employees in good IT security practices, but also maintaining applications and clear procedures to verify their security level before they are used.
Tomorrow, the crisis will be over and companies will return to their usual rhythm of activity. The main challenge for technology managers will be to reinforce the solutions put in place in an emergency climate during the pandemic.
This will require the development of infrastructures that support this digital transition, but also the development of a real strategy for their deployment. Beyond creating a resilient and secure IT architecture, IT leaders will need to be vigilant in monitoring their assets, hardware and software. A good IT system can only be efficient if it relies on reliable and efficient technical equipment.
These adaptations, which are destined to become established over time in companies as new forms of work organization, do not come without some expenses.
According to Gartner, enterprise IT spending will increase by 8.4% in 2021 compared to 2.3% in 2019. Given the changes that are currently required, this is not surprising. This spending is mainly on IT equipment and SaaS software. Nevertheless, in a period where a large part of companies have suffered financially with a drop in their turnover but also in their human resources, the costs related to this digital transformation, like the others, are controlled.
To do this, the company must review what exists in its organization, including an inventory of SaaS applications used. Once this inventory is done, the company can move on to a rationalization phase, where solutions that are not useful or used enough, or those that would be redundant in the organization, will be discarded. This makes it possible to limit unnecessary expenses, by eliminating SaaS solutions for which the return on investment is not high enough, for example.
Once this rationalization is complete, the IT and finance departments, in conjunction with the company's various business lines, will be able to select new innovative solutions to promote remote work within the organization while controlling their budgets.
In order to keep an eye on the new digital ecosystem set up in the company during this period of pandemic, the IT department must jointly with the finance team set up a SaaS Management solution allowing them to have an overview of what is currently used. This way, they can decide whether to maintain them or replace them with solutions that are more useful or modern. In the long run, this solution will also help in the decision making process, especially in the selection of new tools at scale.
From a budget control point of view, a SaaS Management tool will allow to quickly identify the most expensive solutions as well as the solutions that the company could do without and therefore to better manage the software used by the company, so that it is optimized.
The digital transformation of a company can rhyme with an increase in the risk of security breaches. With the multiplication of the software used, the controls on the security of the latter must also increase. A SaaS management tool is a good way to have a clear and quick view of the security levels of the whole software ecosystem used in the company. It is therefore the perfect ally for CIOs/CFOs to support the company in its digital transformation!
Shadow IT is present for a company of any size and we always identify 3x more tools than our customers thought. If you spend less than $400k annually on SaaS tools, we'll identify fewer saving opportunities than a client who spends millions, but we'll help you quickly implement a data-driven buying strategy to prevent this wasteful situation from occurring and keep you focused on your business.
The security of your data is our primary concern. Which is why we have taken appropriate measures to protect your business.
You are free to add any budget owners or anyone involved in SaaS purchasing to streamline your procurement buying process at no additional cost to our platform.
Managing users and identities is a separate business that we don’t do. However, to bring you value and help you with this process, we have partnered with industry leaders like Okta and Auth0 so that we can help you in your Zero Trust Identity process.
We have developed a simple and intuitive solution allowing you to analyze all your SaaS inventory data through dashboard and dynamic list views based on search criteria and filters.
Spendesk is an enterprise expense management solution that allows all employees to pay for SaaS tools. Welii will provide you with insight and support to help you optimize your spending, add leverage to your negotiations, and remove the headaches associated with SaaS purchasing.
