performance. More than two thirds of organisations feel that being diverse has improved trust and collaboration in the technology team. The survey also hints that the flexible nature of remote working may promote greater inclusion, but only time will tell..
A growing digital divide
While few organisations would have planned for something as significant as this pandemic, some entered the crisis in much better shape than others. These digital leaders, the three in ten organisations with the most successful digital business strategies, already had much of the infrastructure in place to deal with the crisis and were further down the line with implementing emerging technologies. When the crisis hit, digital leaders continued to invest while their peers cut back, and over time we are likely to see a growing divide over digital and business performance.
The new technology leader
At the centre of all this lies the technology leader. Many of them emerge from this exhausted, but excited, by the challenges and opportunities of what has become a technology-centric crisis. Over six in ten report feeling more influential as a result of the crisis. This is not reflected in board membership, which for CIOs is down from 71 per
cent in 2017 to 61 per cent now. This decline does not seem to be a concern; what technology leaders want most of all is influence, and this crisis has helped them achieve that, at least for the moment. The smart ones will not let that opportunity pass.
A wave of cyber-crime targeted at remote workers
Covid-19 caused the mass relocation of workers from the safety of their corporate network to studies, bedrooms and kitchen tables all over the world – and the attack surface of organisations expanded exponentially. Our research shows that in addition to cyber-crime challenges faced before the crisis, more than four in ten (41 per cent) have experienced additional cybersecurity incidents, mainly from spear phishing and malware attacks. This challenge has caused security to become the top technology investment priority, and for the first time in this survey’s history cyber-security expertise has become the most in-demand skill set.
findings at: www.hnkpmgciosurvey.com
Everything changed.
Or did it? There is no doubting the pandemic’s dramatic effect on almost every aspect of business and life. But key fundamentals remain. The top priorities for boards did not change with the onset of Covid-19: operational efficiency and customer engagement, both long-standing priorities of the technology leader. While some organisations will have required a radical change in direction, for most it has served to accelerate what was already in place. For some this has actually been useful: “More innovation happened in the last six months than in the last ten years,” remarked one respondent.
Download KPMG’s extensive infographic of these
findings at: https://bit.ly/3apQd18
Reprinted with the kind permission of KPMG for more information CLICK HERE