IT departments must counteract the changing requirements in the long term by optimizing the infrastructure. To this end, according to a survey by Techconsult, 40 percent of companies are planning to increase their IT budgets for the current year despite the pandemic. The planned budget increases are up to 19 percent for three quarters of the companies and one in five even plans an increase of at least 20 to 30 percent.
IT in transition
However, IT budget priorities have also changed. For example, more than one in three companies would like to focus more on operating expenses in order to benefit from these performance-related costs that can be planned over the long term. This approach is particularly suitable in the area of cloud services, as no major investments in the company's own physical infrastructure are necessary and a plannable cost structure can thus be achieved. Overall, the shift to an agile IT infrastructure with flexible usage models is becoming visible and could continue beyond the pandemic.
The pandemic has also led to massive use of videoconferencing, home office and telecommuting, which in turn has led to a dramatic increase in the volume of data generated and used worldwide and poses major challenges for companies. For example, company-relevant data must be made available worldwide and storage capacities must be scalable in the face of high data volumes. To this end, 35 percent of companies currently store their data exclusively in a private cloud and 17 percent in a public cloud.
In almost every second company, the hybrid cloud is used, in which both public and private cloud capacities are used in conjunction with local on-premises resources. The hybrid enterprise cloud combines the best of both worlds. The private part provides control as well as data protection and data security. The public part of the cloud can provide fast access to certain services that are not easily realized on-premises, such as dedicated AI services.
Nothing works without data
It's no surprise that a strong focus on data storage is prevalent. By now, every company probably understands that data is more important than ever for a sustainable strategy. Not only that, data-driven companies make better decisions. That's the finding of Bearingpoint's CFO 4.0 study, which looks at data-driven finance and technology.
According to the survey results, only 28 percent of respondents describe themselves as data-driven, meaning they have implemented data-driven tools for several or most of their business use cases. Advanced analytics is the technology with the highest frequency of use; 96 percent of respondents rated advanced analytics as either already implemented or relevant to their business. More advanced and sophisticated technologies such as blockchain, event streaming and data lakes have yet to realize their potential in CFO functions.
Compared to the results of the same study from 2020, integration capabilities are still an important criterion when selecting a technology. At the same time, security and cloud-based solutions have gained significantly in priority over the past year, as Techconsult also noted in its study. Overall, a significant trend can be identified: Data may be the foundation, but it cannot be used effectively without the right technology.
Technology is an important factor
The Bearingpoint study also looks at technological developments such as Continuous and Predictive Accounting, which aims to provide real-time insights and automation in accounting departments, shift the scope of accountants' activities to value-added tasks, and change organizational structure.
Brexit and the Covid 19 pandemic have reinforced the need for organizations to adapt to powerful changes while maintaining or expanding high quality decision-making. While experience is a valuable factor in making the next best move in such situations, data-driven companies reported more success in this area after bringing advanced technologies to the meeting table.
