TEKsystems’ Research Reveals Companies Face Uphill Climb to Achieve Digital Transformation

CIOs Looking to External Partners to Deliver on the Promise of Digital Transformation in 2019

TEKsystems^®, a provider of IT services that address the pressing strategy, implementation and talent needs for more than 80% of the Fortune 500, today released findings revealing that companies face increased pressure to deliver transformational applications and services in areas deemed essential for the business in 2019. Specifically highlighting the areas of cloud adoption, data analytics, Agile development and rock-solid security, research indicated that these areas also coincide with the largest expected shortage of skills and expertise in 2019. As a result, organizations are increasingly looking to external providers to achieve expected results.

TEKsystems polled IT leaders (chief information officers, IT vice presidents, IT directors, IT hiring managers) across every major industry on their opinions of top technology initiatives throughout 2019.

Key highlights from the survey include:

Transform or Risk Obsolesce—Expected to Drive Innovation, IT Increasingly Seeking External Support to Achieve Transformation

Strong Partnerships Key to Delivering Transformation

TEKsystems’ Take: TEKsystems’ research indicates that there is increased expectation for IT organizations to enable transformative efforts now and in the future. CIOs are feeling confident in their ability to deliver on these bleeding-edge initiatives; however, confidence from their business counterparts, while still high, is diminishing. Organizations will need to prioritize those projects they are capable of tackling alone and those that require outside perspective and expertise. As expectations increase for IT to take a more transformative role in 2019, based on spending expectations, it appears they will increasingly rely on external partnerships in the form of managed or project-based services. While the percentage of IT leaders expecting increased spending on outsourced activities has not grown year over year, it remains steady at more than one-third still expecting increases. As CIOs feel the pressure to deliver value to the business, executing on the company’s technology strategy will determine success into 2019 and beyond.

Implementation of Cloud-based Initiatives Ramps Up in 2019, Driving Increased Competition for Cloud Competencies

TEKsystems’ Take: Organizations seeking speed and scalability are at a critical inflection point with respect to the implementation of cloud-based initiatives. 2019 will be the year they face platform decisions, numerous configuration options and consideration of the technology implications that cloud solutions present. Companies are struggling to keep up with the pace of change surrounding cloud implementations as they navigate different models, strategies and providers. These range from Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS) to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Platform, to name a few. As well as more organizations recognizing increased difficulty in finding high-caliber cloud talent in 2019, it’s clear that they face challenges with their plans to implement cloud solutions in the coming year.

Organizations Seeking to Generate Insight from Massive Quantities of Data in 2019 Will Remain Challenged to Find Talent

TEKsystems’ Take: Today’s data aren’t just structured numbers in a database. They’re layered with conversational data, images and data from sensors, to name a few. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling organizations to find useful insights buried in these massive quantities of data. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Whether leveraging a data warehouse or a data lake, organizations need to build solutions with cognitive science capabilities that provide predictive analytics allowing them to react quickly and intelligently. The high-level skills required are hard to come by, and organizations will need to be creative when seeking these transformative insights to power the business.

DevOps Initiatives and Skills Remain in High Demand for 2019

TEKsystems’ Take: DevOps initiatives will help IT meet the agility and velocity demands of their business partners in 2019. Organizations need the ability to release features as soon as they’re ready without compromising stability and security. Good DevOps capabilities come when development and infrastructure teams are coordinated and able to deploy code at high speed. This shifts testing, provisioning, and risk and compliance to an earlier point in the development cycle and allows the team to optimize security and performance at the beginning of the process. Finding the right DevOps expertise will continue to be a challenge in 2019.

Security-related Initiatives Critical Against an Evolving Threat Landscape—Security Talent in Short Supply

TEKsystems’ Take: Often classified as an IT problem, security is more of a business problem demanding a strong IT and business partnership. The biggest security problem is that it is viewed as a roadblock to fast development rather than an enabler. However, in reality, if security is considered at the commencement of the development cycle, the entire process will be much smoother. This becomes especially important as more of the devices, systems and equipment vulnerable to cyberattacks or unauthorized use are connected. The CIO can help transform the organization by aligning security to the business to drive development, application and infrastructure decisions. As IT security-related initiatives evolve to meet threats in 2019, security personnel with exceptional talent will be increasingly harder to find.

“Digital transformation efforts are expansive, complex undertakings that shape a company’s ability to compete, innovate and navigate disruption. The expectation is clear. IT teams must deliver for the organization and drive success with technology that enables the business to innovate faster than ever before. Successful execution will depend on savvy CIOs who can assess capability gaps and engage the right external partners to help build a technology roadmap that delivers on the right initiatives for the business,” says Jason Hayman, TEKsystems research manager. “As organizations move their digital transformation efforts forward in 2019, the burden will be on the CIO to create the platform that delivers on the promise of emerging technologies.”

TEKsystems is available for additional commentary. For more information about the survey or to schedule an interview, please contact TEKsystems@teamlewis.com.

About TEKsystems^®

We’re partners in transformation. We help clients activate ideas and solutions to take advantage of a new world of opportunity. We are a team of 80,000 strong, working with over 6,000 clients, including 80% of the Fortune 500 across North America, Europe and Asia. As an industry leader in Full-Stack Technology Services, Talent Services and real-world application, we work with progressive leaders to drive change. That’s the power of true partnership. TEKsystems is an Allegis Group company.