WITH 81% of executives expecting a recession over the next few months, many businesses are tightening their pocket books. Yet chief innovation officers (CIO) are speeding up on digital transformations and plan to invest even more in it in 2023. However, they need to stay laser-focused on improving time to value, and likely don’t have the same budget for testing emerging technologies as they did in 2022.
That means that when they’re looking at what to invest in, CIOs need to stay hyper focused on bringing in technology that moves the needle and sets the business up for success amid uncertainty. In particular, I anticipate we’ll see CIOs turn to low-code integration technology to offset skill shortages, pull in more benefits, and minimize disruptions. Here’s what I believe that will look like.
CIOs will rely on application-integration powered by low code to offset skill shortages.
To combat IT skill shortages while addressing mounting pressures to keep costs in line, some businesses will take on low-cost applications that serve niche needs, creating numerous data silos that lead to quality and governance issues. To address this, we will see more CIOs partner with their C-Suite peers and adopt low-code iPaaS/automation tools that provide governance and security, while still fulfilling businesses’ needs.
Low code is expected to take off in 2023. Gartner expects the market to increase by 20%. When speaking with other CIOs, I’ve found that they’re seeing low-code data application platforms serving two purposes: They enable IT teams to do more with less, and they allow employees in non-IT departments to create integrations that they need to improve their job. With many companies pausing on hiring, low-code application integration is one way to enable employees to do more with less.
Leaders will focus on integrating their technologies to reap maximum benefits.
Most companies have already invested in numerous data and cloud-related technologies, but by taking on too many applications, organizations are now experiencing modernization choke points, holding up operations and leading to sunk costs.
To avoid wasted investments and maximize their return on investment, companies will look to consolidate and integrate key applications and technologies to provide better automated and integrated experiences to their end users, employees, and customers.
For instance, there’s usually a best of breed cloud for each type of application or workflow. However, the gains from those different clouds could be minimal at best without application integration, as they could lock data in silos, require employees to laboriously transfer data to other applications, or hinder the overall employee experience.
CIOs face disruptions in their ERP modernization efforts.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems drive companies. Organizations use them to plan and oversee all of their resources, from money to people to materials. In times of uncertainty, ERPs and their data and insights are even more critical.
Though many CIOs are focusing on ERP modernization efforts, they need to re-prioritize how they get there. Instead of finishing a laborious migration or starting to move to a whole new system, CIOs are looking at application integration. With the innovations in integration platforms over the last few years, they’ve become a strong contender to improve the mileage of ERPs, whether that’s by integrating and supporting new ERPs, or bridging the gap between old on-premises ERPs.
In fact, 94% of organizations worldwide are using a composable ERP strategy, according to Boomi data. By using application integration, CIOs can improve employees’ experience with their ERPs and help to improve the accuracy of the system without extensive infrastructure updates, among other benefits.
The business landscape changes more rapidly every day. To succeed in 2023, CIOs will need to do the same. I foresee application integration technology — powered by low code — playing a key role in helping CIOs do so, enabling data to move at the speed of business. Time is money, and with limited resources in 2023, CIOs can use easy-to-implement application integration to help overcome the skills shortage, maximize their cloud benefits, and move forward on ERP modernization.
Ed Macosky is the chief innovation officer at Boomi.
