As the digital world becomes ever more prominent in society and business, decision makers are finding it more important to identify the trends that will take their organisation forward in the coming years.
This is not always easy to do, and investing in the wrong technology could see a dramatic loss of capital, time wasted regaining one's feet and, in the process, a drop in market position.
To meet the challenge of making the right business decisions, Gartner has released its latest survey into what technology trends chief information officers (CIOs) will need to consider over the next year to stay ahead of the curve.
Published during its Symposium/ITxpo on the Gold Coast this month, Gartner found Kiwi decision makers in particular understand the importance of adapting leadership styles to suit the modern, highly digitised world.
People in IT jobs will find their CIO given more authority, according to the survey. The responsibility for leading their company's digital innovation over the next two years will increasingly fall to CIOs, particularly in New Zealand enterprises. In fact, Kiwi CIOs will be allocated almost one-quarter of the responsibility (22 per cent), compared to a global level of only 15 per cent.
Technology trends for 2015
Gartner also announced its list of trends expected to be prioritised for 2015.
Taking the top spot on both a global level and in the Australia/New Zealand region was business intelligence and analytics. As Big Data makes its inception into everyday business practices, companies will find it increasingly important to hire IT professionals capable of adopting a strategy to handle and utilise the information – good news for business intelligence jobs.
Cloud technology took the second spot on the list, with third-party, off-premise computing and storage solutions finding a period of renaissance both globally and in New Zealand.
Security rounded the list in tenth position, showing somewhat the importance of the top two. Security was a greater concern on a global level (reaching seventh position); however, businesses do understand the challenges and will be adapting a strategy to secure their organisations, Gartner found.
In fact, 93 per cent of Australian and Kiwi CIOs believe the digital world poses a greater risk now than ever before, with 66 per cent also saying risk management is not keeping up. IT recruitment, then, and finding professionals with a keen eye for cybersecurity will be a necessary part of a digital strategy for 2015.
