As the pandemic swept across Asia Pacific and businesses rallied against the impacts of safety restrictions on their operations, small and medium businesses (SMBs) and how they are managing the disruption, has come under the spotlight.
Many have been recognised for their resilience and ability to pivot to gain a competitive advantage, and governments across the region have offered support to help them manage in this challenging business environment.
Midsize businesses are an important subset of SMBs and indeed a crucial part of the economy. In my experience working with SMBs over the past decade, I have found that this segment, sandwiched between small businesses and large enterprises, is in a sweet spot when it comes to business and digital transformation.
They have the resources and operating systems in place to invest in technology and support effective onboarding of new processes while remaining agile and nimble to make changes efficiently.
As we approach the start of a new year, I would like to highlight three trends that midsize businesses should leverage to take their transformation to new heights and seize opportunities ahead.
Hybrid everything to power agile, resilient organisations of the future
As businesses continue to adapt to changing restrictions, a key question is being raised – what does the future of work look like? Employees today are putting a higher value on flexibility and want more control over their hours and where they are working from.
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In enabling such hybrid working arrangements, it is critical for companies to invest in effective technology solutions to allow employees to stay productive and engaged while working apart from their colleagues and ensure companies can remain agile when facing unforeseen disruptions.
Against this backdrop, we are seeing an accelerated shift to the cloud in the past year due to hybrid work arrangements. The demand and adoption of cloud in the Asia Pacific are forecasted to exceed that of the rest of the world, with overall cloud spending in the region expected to reach USD200 billion by 2024, according to Gartner.
The business of tomorrow will operate in a “hybrid everything” ecosystem, with hybrid work being the norm, and cloud being a driving force for success and expansion
Cloud serves as both a technology and business transformation strategy. It offers a host of benefits including cost savings, more flexibility for employees to collaborate with others, and simplified management. However, what makes the future of cloud unique is that every organisation starts from a different base, and midsize companies will not follow a singular, pre-defined route to cloudification.
They have the opportunity to become the chief architect in their digitalization journey, mapping out an infrastructure that truly fits their requirements across aspects like employee needs, customer needs, and resources available.
This is why we are seeing increasing adoption of the hybrid cloud model, in which organisations use a mix of public and private cloud services to leverage their respective advantages.
A strong cybersecurity posture will become even more important in this hybrid and distributed environment. This is key for midsize businesses especially, as over three in five companies in the region have suffered a cyber incident (63 per cent) in the past year, according to Cisco’s recent research.
Even for those who are aware of cyber threats, bolstering cybersecurity resilience is no easy task. Challenges companies face range from staying abreast of continually evolving technologies and security requirements, to keeping up with constantly evolving cyber threats, and the ability to recruit cybersecurity talent.
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Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) are emerging as effective architectures that support the demands of hybrid cloud and hybrid workplaces. As a cloud-based, as-a-service model, SASE provides strong, secure edge-to-edge access covering everything from datacenter to remote offices, and individual employees, to support the hybrid workplace.
XDR is an integrated security approach that brings security solutions for different parts of a company’s IT infrastructure under one roof, enabling faster incident response as well as greater visibility of cyber threats across the private network and public clouds.
Leveraging AI, ML and fostering strong IT governance
2022 is the year businesses will contemplate how they can keep pace with the acceleration of technology. Be it interacting with customers, or collaborating with colleagues or partners, companies are using multiple applications every day.
They are also leveraging technologies like AI and ML to enhance the customer experience or improve their operational performance by making sense of the vast amount of data that they are generating through digital touchpoints.
Yet, the accelerated pace of digitalisation has also exposed a myriad of gaps and vulnerabilities companies might face, especially as departments risk working in silos, as they rapidly innovate and evolve their strategies and priorities before the right infrastructure is put in place in tandem with the IT department.
Contrary to popular belief that IT processes will slow down innovation; the right IT governance can accelerate innovation and ensure smooth and seamless operations amid rapid change.
In addition, IT departments also face the issue of shadow IT, where employees use IT systems, applications, and devices without the IT team’s visibility. Continued hybrid working arrangements and the shift to the cloud have given rise to shadow IT especially as users become increasingly comfortable downloading and using apps and services from the cloud.
This has introduced a host of new issues, from security gaps and collaboration inefficiencies to wasted time and money. Issues like these can be addressed with a formal IT governance framework that sets out policies for the deployment of IT and monitoring of usage.
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To this end, Full-Stack Observability, which provides real-time observability across the modern technology stack, including applications, software-defined compute, storage services, network, and more, is a crucial capability for companies to gain visibility of their entire IT infrastructure.
This enables them to easily access, explore and search a plethora of data and correlate application performance to business outcomes.
Armed with such visibility, companies can better understand the usage of applications and address issues in real-time to improve end-user experience and enhance business outcomes or mitigate potential issues and vulnerabilities.
Skills and mindset change will drive the culture of growth and resilience
As the adoption of technology accelerates and new business models emerge, midsize companies need to ensure employees stay relevant and knowledgeable in a highly competitive and complex market.
Notably, the region is also facing a talent crunch, with management consulting company Korn Ferry estimating a shortage of 47 million tech talent by 2030 within the Asia Pacific, which could threaten the recovery and growth of different economies and sectors.
Against this backdrop, companies should actively implement measures to address this deficit especially as the demand for technological skills is only set to grow. Continuous upskilling and retraining of talent are key ways to enhance the digital skillsets of current employees and bridge the talent gap.
In fact, over half (54 per cent) of APJC Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and IT Decision Makers are upskilling talent within the next 12 months, higher than the global average of 46 per cent, according to Cisco’s Accelerating Digital Agility Research.
Making sure employees keep pace with the evolution of skills required in their roles enables them to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Moreover, every IT organisation, and in fact, every department, has a set of skills and roles that are in decline, and a set that is in demand.
Employers should aim to align those with declining roles against open or potential positions that are poised for the future and prepare them to transition to new roles with higher value-add and support the company’s sustainable development.
As hybrid working continues to be the mainstay, a cultural shift is needed and this begins with fostering a high-performance culture in which employees achieve a greater sense of job satisfaction and are empowered to be their best selves through continuous learning and upgrading.
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Change is never easy, but one thing the pandemic has taught us is that change is sometimes thrust upon us. Whether we are talking about adopting a hybrid work or IT model, strengthening IT governance, or embracing a new culture, the companies and people who emerge stronger through crises are those who are ready to proactively evolve with the times and stay ahead of the competition.
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