IT chiefs raise concerns over cost-of-living crisis

01/23/2023

Organisations are looking to cut costs while still innovating with IT, and CIOs and CTOs are worried how staff will cope

Cliff Saran,
Managing Editor

Published: 18 Jan 2023 14:45

Almost half (46%) of IT decision-makers who took part in a Census-wide buyer’s sentiment survey for Rimini Street admitted the cost-of-living crisis has led to the inability to meet salary expectations for new and existing staff.

The survey found that chief information officers (CIOs) and chief technology officers (CTOs) are embracing the new talent acquisition and retention environment by becoming more flexible in their hiring models, including the hiring of talent with less experience and fewer skills, but with a willingness to learn (60%). Other actions taken to fill the talent gap include cross-training of existing staff (39%), offering unique perks and benefits such as a four-day workweek, and engaging third-party services to provide ongoing or project-based support, application management or outsourcing services (47%).

The IT leaders: The future outlook report 2023, polled CIOs and CTOs in the UK, Ireland, the Nordics and the Gulf states. While 62% say digital transformation is a high priority in 2023, 77% are only in the planning stage of projects and 56% currently do not have a digital transformation project.

Although increases in IT budget for the new year remain conservative, 44% of IT leaders feel additional pressure by their board of directors to show increased return on investments for their technology spend.

Emmanuelle Hose, group vice-president and general manager for EMEA at Rimini Street, said: “Composable applications are becoming a definite trend. It offers a very good way to accelerate digital transformation and innovation.”

The survey found that among the CIOs and CTOs polled, 76% have heard of composable enterprise resource planning (ERP) and 84% of this group are expected to make investments in it in 2023. Almost half (47%) believe the adoption of composable ERP strategies should be considered a change management programme requiring employee buy-in, while 43% expect that IT leaders will need to plan for additional talent and financial resources to support the new ecosystem of technologies (43%).

While the survey shows that respondents are prioritising digital transformation, in Hose’s experience, many organisations are still very much at the beginning of their transformation journeys.

Major enterprise IT providers offer highly integrated stacks that can help organisations move forward on their digital transformation strategy, but people are wary of buying everything from one IT provider. Composability reflects how IT leaders have plenty of choice when selecting best-of-breed software as a service to supplement core enterprise resource planning systems.

With a significant portion of the IT budget normally allocated to legacy IT and enterprise systems, Rimini Street said CIOs and CTOs should review the total cost of ownership associated with their purchase and maintenance of enterprise applications.

As Computer Weekly has previously reported, given a worsening skills crisis, there is increased costs associated with hiring internal resources and the additional contractors needed to maintain existing enterprise IT systems. This means IT leaders need to reconsider supplier management.