In today’s rapidly changing landscape, adopting new tech can substantially impact business performance. Therefore, most organizations can be seen embracing the latest tech innovations. While technology can transform how businesses are run, managing an array of complex IT is no mean feat. It is, in fact, a convoluted endeavor that requires extreme leadership oversight to manage these new systems efficiently, ensuring the business stays relevant through emerging disturbances and always a step ahead of the competition.
As IT Leadership becomes a popular topic of discussion in board-level meetings, we got in touch with Eric Westrom, VP of Business Infrastructure at Synoptek, to understand more about IT leadership and uncover its significance in 2023. Here’s a look at our discussion:
What is IT Leadership?
A group of senior executives, IT Leadership, is responsible for the planning, implementation, and management of IT infrastructure to achieve business strategy and goals. Comprising chief officers such as Chief Information Officer, Chief Data Officer, and Chief Analytics Officer, strong IT Leadership helps organizations align their IT goals with overarching business goals and leverage technology as a revenue-generating asset as well as a driver of business change.
Why Will IT Leadership Be Critical in 2023?
As organizations across industries and geographies work toward building a digital enterprise, in the coming year(s), IT Leadership will lay the foundation for a modern ecosystem – home to an ever-evolving technology environment. By acting as an extension of strategic leadership, this team of senior tech executives will help define, execute, and realize a comprehensive IT strategy while providing the right tips and recommendations on how best to leverage IT to drive business outcomes.
What Are the Benefits of IT Leadership?
As organizations look to respond to evolving market dynamics, update their systems and processes, and better meet the needs of their customers, IT Leadership can deliver the guidance organizations need to achieve their strategies and objectives. The right approach to IT leadership can enable modern enterprises to:
- Strengthen the tech foundation of their business and use it to steer the organization to greater heights.
- Focus on their core business and not worry about the day-to-day management of complex IT systems.
- Boost operational stability, accelerate innovation, and correlate business goals and objectives with IT strategy by making the most of virtual C-suite executives who participate in Board-level meetings.
- Get access to expert technical executives with a deep understanding of industry trends and standards and familiarity across a broad range of IT platforms and technologies to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.
- Have an experienced leader implement technology solutions that align with desired business objectives – quickly and effectively – without having to source a full-time senior-level IT executive.
What Are Some Good IT Leadership Characteristics?
Strong IT Leadership plays a huge role in how any organization leverages technology to drive the business to success. If you are seeking IT Leadership support, here are some characteristics to look out for:
- Knowledge of the latest technology trends and the potential to leverage them to enable a distinct competitive advantage.
- Awareness of existing and evolving risks and vulnerabilities and the skill to take decisions to safeguard organizational strategy and profitability.
- Ability to act as a mediator, to make the right vendor and platform choices around security, data storage, collaboration, etc.
- Power to strike the right balance between meeting technological demands and conflicting business priorities.
- Skill to negotiate decisions on budget and expenditure while driving the right level of transformation and innovation.
What Challenges Do Organizations Encounter with IT Leadership?
IT Leadership, although significant, comes with its own set of roadblocks. Some of the challenges that organizations encounter with IT Leadership include:
- Finding and retaining the right talent, especially in an era where the skill gap is constantly widening.
- Bolstering enterprise security – not just as a one-time activity but in a continuous and proactive manner.
- Creating (and sustaining) robust hybrid work models while constantly handling issues with collaboration, access, and security.
- Monitoring every device and user that connects to the enterprise network or tries to access corporate resources.
- Making the right technology decisions considering a zillion factors – right from the cost of implementation to ease of use, budget, integration and support requirements, etc.
- Handling and dealing with change and implementing an all-encompassing, robust change management strategy.
What is the Difference Between IT Leadership and Management?
Successful IT Leadership demands senior executives to lead by example and make decisions based on trust. The objective of IT Leadership is to establish principles and guidelines that inspire people and encourage proactive change. Instead of implementing quick workarounds, IT leadership uses foresight to steer the organizations toward their future goals and aspirations.
Management, on the other hand, focuses on organizing and coordinating activities systematically. It focuses on bringing stability within the organization through the formulation of policies and procedures. Since the perspective is extremely short-ranged, decisions made are usually reactive in nature.
How Can You Start Your IT Leadership Journey?
If you want to make Information Technology an “enabler” for your organization and achieve a competitive advantage in your market in 2023 and beyond, you need to engage with a partner that brings much-needed stability to your business. Through comprehensive IT assessment, the right partner will be able to offer technology recommendations best fitting your existing IT landscape, performance expectations, and budget.
With the business vision to empower IT alignment, the right partner can also help identify essential business factors and develop a tech strategy to simplify your IT environment which leads to a cost-effective, better-performing, and reliable IT foundation.
Exploring IT Leadership with Synoptek
Synoptek’s comprehensive IT Leadership Services provide senior-level executive resources that serve as C-suite executives and IT leaders to your business. Whether you need advice on what systems to implement, need experts to lead your IT strategy, or just manage your complex tech ecosystem, Synoptek delivers it all.
With deep industry expertise and a commitment to getting things right for every client, every time, Synoptek’s IT experts can re-architect and overhaul complete systems or provide a plan for small problem areas to keep things running smoothly – each with equal expertise and commitment. Our IT Leadership Services go beyond managing networks and IT infrastructure; we provide companies with a detailed analysis and set of recommendations that focus on achieving business goals. Contact us today to speak with an expert and get started on your IT Leadership journey.
