Following the systemic change in working life, we’re seeing that rapid digital transformation solutions instigated two years ago are not serviceable in the long-term.

The business world is a very different place two years on from the Prime Minister announcing national lockdown measures. As companies pivoted to remote work models practically overnight, massive IT overhaul was progressed at lightning-fast speed. Teams needed technology to support working outside centralised office spaces, and with the rush to digitally transform, decades of change happened in the space of days and weeks.

Digital transformation is still at the top of the agenda for many leaders. According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.4 trillion in 2022, an increase of 5.3% from 2021. However, now that the dust has settled from pandemic-related disruption, a proper strategy around having the right tech tools in place for the business needs to be addressed – it’s no longer about finding short-term solutions, but about auditing and consolidating what’s currently available within the business and planning for the future.

Deloitte found that 85% of CEOs accelerated digital transformation projects during the COVID-19 period. But with this staggering number, many leaders can’t articulate the strategy behind tech adoption. Answering questions on IT usage can be tricky – why was this tool invested in over a competitor one? Which tools are most useful to certain departments? Who is using what?

Of all those affected, the IT management challenge is keenly felt in smaller organisations. We know that SMBs signed up for many different tools to survive the sudden remote working situation in 2020, but now they have a duplication of services, licenses, and costs. These SMBs, which account for around 60 per cent of the employment and around half of turnover in the UK private sector according to the FSB, are short-staffed, without dedicated teams of IT admins, and don’t have enterprise-level budgets to handle proper tech management. These types of businesses need technology now; they need it to be easy to manage, easy to deploy and affordable. In the 2022 hybrid landscape, simplification and consolidation need to be the watchwords for leaders, to improve efficiency and make the lives of employees that bit easier.