3 critical aspects of a business-aligned IT strategy for 2023

Tribeca Technology’s CEO and founder Mark Instance advises businesses on developing a business-aligned IT strategy for 2023

Despite recession concerns and the highest levels of inflation in 40 years, only 6% of businesses plan to cut their IT spending in 2023, according to Spiceworks Ziff Davis. 

This is unsurprising since the Covid 19 pandemic is still fresh in the minds of business leaders and technology played a crucial role in keeping their business functioning during that period. We’ve learned over the past few years that where uncertainty is the problem, technology can be the solution.

As we head into 2023, most businesses will prioritise achieving resilience and maximising profitability. As an enabler of success, IT is the key to doing more with less. So, it must be a priority for business leaders to build an IT roadmap that supports business objectives. These are what we consider critical investment areas for most businesses:   

1. Invest in automation

A key tool to improving efficiency within any business is looking at ways technology can automate tasks to allow your team to focus on higher-value activities.

Automating marketing activities can be achieved through a good CRM system that is integrated into your website – for example, automatically sending marketing materials to prospects based on the areas of your website that they visited or setting up regular content delivery to your prospect list.

Automating workflows to onboard new customers or onboarding employees can reduce the workload on your team and allow them to focus on revenue-generating activities.  

2. Reduce technical debt to improve agility and resilience

The concept of technical debt arose in software development and has come to have relevance in all aspects of networking and IT. Businesses accumulate technical debt when they make decisions about projects and investments that may be expedient in the short term but have long-term costs. Technical debt can delay or disrupt critical organisational priorities like cloud migration; most businesses end up overspending to meet these objectives.

Address technical debt by identifying and addressing unsustainable systems. Companies usually have legacy devices or software that consume resources for no reason other than compatibility with older technology or user comfort—they need to be modernised or replaced. Prevent future technical debt by minimising it when a project starts, systems are migrated or equipment is purchased.

3. Security, security, security

Likely to be the biggest area of investment for most firms in 2023 is security. The threats to your information security are increasing daily and therefore you need to ensure that your security posture is adapting to those threats.

Sir Ian McGeechan, three times head coach of the British and Irish Lions rugby team, has described a concept of “World Class Basics” – the best teams do the basics better than anyone else and that’s what makes them the best. 

World Class Basics can also be applied to your cyber security. Many high-profile breaches in the past 12 months have been caused by basic security flaws such as a lack of Multi-Factor Authentication or a robust patching regime. 

Starting with the basics will make your business more secure in 2023. If you need help understanding what those basics are, the Cyber Essentials program is a good place to start.