Falling Behind These 5 CIO Priorities Will Cost Your Business to Lose 60-90% of Your Revenue

The economic effects of the coronavirus are becoming evident as it spreads over the world. The pandemic has caused significant corporate disruption due to new technologies and commercial structures. Client demands have evolved over the previous two decades, and it is vital to manage businesses while they undergo operational changes.

The COVID-19 outbreak confronted CIOs (Chief Information Officers) with many additional challenges, adding layers of complexity to the mix. To ensure that their companies’ information systems can continue to function in the face of adversity, CIOs need to pivot quickly.

The importance of digital channels, products, and processes is now immediately apparent to businesses worldwide. This is a wake-up call for CIOs that have put too much emphasis on day-to-day operations at the price of investing in digital business and long-term resilience. CIOs should directly look to improve access and capabilities in two high-priority categories of tech: Digital workplace resources and digital technology to support customer demand.

Here are five areas where CIOs can align their business goals with technology:

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  1. Business strategy

  For CIOs and their organisations, strategy has long been a significant concern. Only 23% of CIOs believe their company is good at business strategy and planning. Many CIOs and their C-level peers spend a lot of time and money crafting plans, only to have them sit on a shelf collecting dust. Some people have become cynical about strategy and prefer to do away with it entirely.

  While completely integrating information and technology (I&T) into the business strategy, CIOs approach it in three ways: 1) no formal business strategy, 2) separate I&T and business strategies, and 3) a single business strategy with I&T incorporated. When dealing with any of these three scenarios, CIOs must remember that operational excellence and credibility are the bedrock of a strategic voice.

  Many CIOs and IT teams devote so much time and energy to operational difficulties that they struggle to think about strategy even once a year.

• 2. Information security

  For both businesses and people, having excellent information security is critical. A CIO should implement optimal information security procedures and ensure that all employees are informed of the risks. Organisations can protect themselves, and their customers, contacts, and suppliers secure from hackers by maintaining a consistent level of awareness and training. When everyone is concerned about data security, it reflects favourably on your company’s commercial and business circles.

  Cyber thieves pose a threat to all organisations that store and handle data digitally. Management teams must be proactive in staying on top of these threats and disseminating best practices to their whole workforce.

  MSB Docs can be of great help for businesses in enhancing their information security systems as it ensures a secure solution for document-related problems, provides security, storage, and efficiency, and ensures compliance by validating the software against identity rules and regulations.

• 3. Digital workplace

  To become more effective, IT staff must liberate from manual processes. CIOs should establish a proactive automation approach in 2022 to accelerate their organisation’s digital transformation.

  Gone are the days when a person could walk down the hall with important contract papers to get them physically signed by a colleague. Now, one has to digitise and share the document across, so people on the other side of the globe can sign it, and MSB Docs does that smoothly with its cloud-based e-signature solution. IT helps CIOs streamline processes and customise complex workflow needs and automate the existing manual processes.

  Your digital workplace drives business efficiency and business success. CIOs can develop a tremendous digital work environment by ensuring that their employees get the tools or devices needed to adopt technologies quickly.

• 4. Cost optimisation

  A shift in mindset is essential. Cost optimisation is a business-focused, ongoing discipline that aims to reduce spending and costs while maximising profits. An emphasis should be laid on the business’ cost optimising and not cost-cutting as the latter can mean cost-cutting at the expense of value reduction. IT cost optimisation must become a component of its overall business strategy.

  For CIOs, cost optimisation tasks become more manageable with MSB Docs as they benefit enterprises by digitising the document approval process. Multiple parties can participate in a deal from any part of the globe with the help of eSignature solutions, which helps companies minimise paper and printing costs, delivery, and postal services costs.

  This move from a cost-cutting attitude to a revolutionary cost-optimisation strategy can help you decrease operational difficulties and power growth.

• 5. Customer experience

  Despite all the extra obligations on their shoulders, CIOs are fuelling their company’s customer experience journey, with 97 per cent indicating they are as engaged on CX as they were before the COVID-19 outbreak, if not more so.

  CIOs frequently collaborate with their peers to bring their digital experiences from concept to reality since more teams are actively involved in designing the customer experience. On customer experience management (CXM) initiatives, IT leaders frequently collaborate with two or more C-level colleagues.

  The link between CIOs and CMOs is likely the strongest of these ties. Most worldwide CIOs (95 per cent) strongly agree that collaborating with the CMO improves their company’s customer experience.

The Bottom Line

The way teams function has altered as a result of remote work. Many traditional operations have to be replaced by more flexible digital alternatives.

CIOs can promote technology and assist in driving digital transformation and bringing better business outcomes. Additionally, the CIO needs to help improve the digital IQ of the C-suite. In 2020, when individuals were first sent home, the first stage was to equip all employees to work away from the workplace. This next stage will develop a robust hybrid workplace that functions successfully and still help with secure platforms and delivery systems.