8 Things Keeping CIOs Up at Night
CIOs' nightmares becomes MSPs' opportunities.
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No matter the epoch, there are always ways of communication that just don’t translate between generations. Today, however, those gaps don’t just extend to differing viewpoints or slang vocabularies. The differences between age groups drill down into the methods and mechanisms of communication, and this can make collaboration difficult in multigenerational workforces. Jason Dittman, president of Canada MSP MicroAge Regina, says alleviating that pain point is a big initiative for 2019.
“Our main area of focus is assisting our clients to transform so that they can have the tools to allow all generations to effectively communicate and collaborate,” says Dittmann. “The main deliverables are unified communication via Office 365 and hosted PBX, assistance with the planning and implementation and, most importantly, offering change management and training so the users understand both the why and the how so organizations can truly be more productive.”
The opportunity goes beyond just UC initiatives, though. Nancy Sabino, CEO of SabinoCompTech, says the communication differences between generations impacts even how companies adopt and implement emerging technology.
“There are a lot of technological transformations and movements that companies of all sizes are dealing with, from cybersecurity, migrating to the cloud, AI, [machine learning] and so on that affect the way end users work,” says Sabino. “Changing behaviors, training and educating end users through these shifts, I feel, will be a challenge, especially with multigenerational workforces that have different styles of communicating and learning. It will take different tactics to get everyone on the same page as quickly as the changes are made.”
A company is only as successful as its workforce is skilled. Today, those essential skills increasingly require a deep understanding of technology such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and predictive data analytics. It’s hard enough to find such talent, and it’s exponentially more difficult to make sure these workers are the right fit for the business and the company culture — and that their salaries stay within the company budget. Not an easy task.
The difficulty is compounded by the fact that our workforce is aging out. Not only do CIOs need to staff for new technological skills, they also have to hustle to fill the holes left by longtime employees making their exits. Sometimes, the most efficient and effective way to fill those gaps isn’t with new employees.
“We believe that the war for talent is a trend that is impacting all our clients and businesses around the country,” says Eric Rieger, president of WEBIT Services. “We have 10,000 baby boomers heading into retirement on average on a daily basis, and that trend is expected to continue for the next three to five years. The impact for this on CIOs is that they need to leverage technology to be as efficient as possible since the talent pool will continue to shrink.”
We’ve been hearing about the critical nature of a mobile-first strategy for years, but today, that term means something a little different. It isn’t just that customers have to be able to interact with businesses in a responsive, easy-to-navigate mobile environment. The mobile-first approach has to be applied internally as well, as employees continue to move work processes to mobile devices, prompting a need for all kinds of security, collaboration, and productivity-software solutions. And because organizations are increasingly allowing employees to leverage their own mobile devices for work purposes, these implications are compounded even further.
Nikolai Vargas, CTO and vice president of client services for Switchfast Technologies, says this is changing the conversation with clients from one about mobile device management to one about mobile-data management.
“Employees are encouraged to stay connected to these corporate resources at all time to service the business and to use them to share information, but the business is no longer issuing company phones,” he says. “Having a BYOD environment (even when isolated to phones) opens the business up to privacy concerns if they attempt to implement a full MDM solution on hardware they don’t own.”
There’s no question that automated solutions help alleviate some of the pressure on CIOs. When you have machine learning and automation handling internal operations instead of relying on manual processes, you get faster turnaround times, fewer errors and increased efficiencies. As the internet of things (IoT) continues to gain ground, more and more activities – both internal and external – are being automated, saving organizations untold resources.
John Schoff, CEO of Reality Bytes Inc., says that his small business customers are increasingly leveraging solutions that not long ago were strictly in the purview of consumer technology. Home assistants such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home are now playing a big part in his customers’ workplaces.
“There are thousands – if not more – of Google Home integrations, from lighting, switches, power outlets and more,” says Schoff. “Implementing IoT and automation technology into small businesses using Google’s platform along with IFTTT has been a huge game changer for our clients, saving them time and money. What used to cost tens of thousands of dollars, you can now do for much less, and it’s much easier to operate with voice control and mobile access.”
But implementing these solutions and integrating them into existing infrastructure isn’t an easy task. As more and more solutions become automated, those integrations become ever more complicated, and CIOs need the help of managed service providers to administer all the moving pieces in a way that doesn’t negatively impact existing operations or teams, as well as anticipates future needs in a business environment that’s moving as quickly as it is in 2019.
In the channel, we ’re talking a lot about moving from a strictly IT role to becoming a true trusted adviser who can speak directly to a customer’s specific organizational goals and challenges. MSPs today have to understand the industry, the business, the offerings, the customers, the employees and more. It’s a huge shift in thinking, one that many MSPs are still grappling with.
But CIOs have been struggling with this shift for far longer. What’s more, as part of the C-suite, they have day-to-day responsibilities that range far beyond the IT department. From staffing to customer experience to financial forecasting, the CIO role today is looking more and more like the traditional COO role. It touches every department, employee and customer touch point in the organization. As demands on CIOs grow, their demands of their MSPs grow in step.
“The biggest trend I’m seeing is that customers are asking for more than a simple PC replacement plan,” says Ian Richardson, CEO of Doberman Technologies. “They want to have someone who understands their industry overall and knows the common pain points and can propose solutions, even if those solutions don’t involve the service providers services/goods.”
Increasingly, the lines between operations, finance and IT are blurring. Just like MSPs are continuously being tasked to do more with the same resources, CIOs too are expected to work minor operational efficiency miracles every day. They need to increase productivity among the workforce, find more cost-effective ways to execute core processes and still be able to adopt and implement new applications like advanced analytics or customer-facing AI platforms. It’s a matter of robbing Peter to pay Paul, over and over again.
The pressure extends into the very IT infrastructure on which businesses run. Managed service provider Blue Line Technologies is trying to help its customers grapple with a very simple but sometimes-expensive issue: getting customers off Windows 7 before Microsoft ends its support of the OS in 2020.
“If [customers] have older computers, it is almost impossible for a small business of 20-25 users to absorb the costs of replacing 20+ computers all at once. We are helping them plan now by replacing two to three devices per quarter with a new Windows 10 machine,” says Jeff Sagraves, president of Blue Line. “It spreads out the costs and also shows the client that we are helping them plan for the future and not just reacting to outages.”
Customers today expect to be able to contact a company according to their own preferences. Organizations that don’t offer an omnichannel customer support strategy are behind the curve. They have to be prepared to service customers via phone, email or live chat. They must be available at any time of day and have the answers to any customer question or complaint at their fingertips. This kind of pressure can lead to large, sprawling customer service pools, and if a business doesn’t have the right tools in place to automate the process and make it more efficient, the help desk can become a major source of wasted revenue.
SWC Technology’s Cummings says it’s leading to more and more customers turning to MSPs to handle their helpdesk operations.
“We’ve seen an increased demand for outsourced service desk and expect that to continue in 2019,” she says. “It’s challenging for an internal team to support users as they navigate the change — on a 24/7/365 basis, from anywhere, on any device. Additionally, this distraction takes internal resources away from identifying and implementing higher-priority projects that drives greater value to the business.”
It almost goes without saying that security is the top reason CIOs can’t sleep. Can you blame them? Every time they turn around there’s a new headline screaming about massive data breaches caused by sloppy internal practices. If tech is now an integral part of the processes of every line of business in every industry, security has become of paramount importance in every single tech solution.
But whereas in the past the talk has been centered around advanced technological applications, CIOs today are starting to come around to what MSPs have been telling them for at least a couple of years. You can implement every security application known to man, and none will make a bit of difference if your users keep clicking on that unverified attachment courtesy of your friendly neighborhood cyberattacker.
Fred Reck, president of InnoTek Computer Consulting, says his practice is focused in part on security awareness training for all of his customers’ users. The vast majority of the breaches and infections InnoTek sees arise from CIOs’ inability to properly manage their end users.
“The security layers that we put in place are (relatively) easily circumvented by untrained users,” says Reck. “CIOs are asking for training and testing services much more this year than previously. In our compliance-driven industries, we are seeing it being required by the auditing agencies.”
But while training and compliance services are driving revenue for managed service providers, there’s a flip side to that opportunity. As CIOs get wise to their own security inadequacies and realizing they need expert help, they’re demanding proof that the MSPs they’re turning to are eating their own dog food.
“Additionally, and separately, we are seeing CIOs and compliance organizations require to see our testing, auditing and certifications,” says Reck. “In some instances, they want to see our financials, certifications, security assessments (on our networks), and HIPAA training certifications. Having this already in place for several years, this puts us far out ahead of our competition and drastically reduces sales barriers.”
It almost goes without saying that security is the top reason CIOs can’t sleep. Can you blame them? Every time they turn around there’s a new headline screaming about massive data breaches caused by sloppy internal practices. If tech is now an integral part of the processes of every line of business in every industry, security has become of paramount importance in every single tech solution.
But whereas in the past the talk has been centered around advanced technological applications, CIOs today are starting to come around to what MSPs have been telling them for at least a couple of years. You can implement every security application known to man, and none will make a bit of difference if your users keep clicking on that unverified attachment courtesy of your friendly neighborhood cyberattacker.
Fred Reck, president of InnoTek Computer Consulting, says his practice is focused in part on security awareness training for all of his customers’ users. The vast majority of the breaches and infections InnoTek sees arise from CIOs’ inability to properly manage their end users.
“The security layers that we put in place are (relatively) easily circumvented by untrained users,” says Reck. “CIOs are asking for training and testing services much more this year than previously. In our compliance-driven industries, we are seeing it being required by the auditing agencies.”
But while training and compliance services are driving revenue for managed service providers, there’s a flip side to that opportunity. As CIOs get wise to their own security inadequacies and realizing they need expert help, they’re demanding proof that the MSPs they’re turning to are eating their own dog food.
“Additionally, and separately, we are seeing CIOs and compliance organizations require to see our testing, auditing and certifications,” says Reck. “In some instances, they want to see our financials, certifications, security assessments (on our networks), and HIPAA training certifications. Having this already in place for several years, this puts us far out ahead of our competition and drastically reduces sales barriers.”
**Editor’s Note: Throughout the fourth quarter of 2018, as part of our Channel Futures/Channel Partners “In Focus” series, we will feature a series of galleries designed to help partners grow their businesses in 2019 and beyond.**
It’s a rough time to be a CIO.
It feels like yesterday when chief information officers just needed to make sure their companies’ networks were up and running, users’ PCs were set up properly, and no one was having an Office Space moment on the company printer. Today, CIOs touch way more than just IT infrastructure. As every industry and line of business increasingly runs on technology solutions, overworked – and overwhelmed – CIOs suddenly find themselves with their fingers in all the corporate pies, from marketing to supply chain to accounts payable and more.
“Given the rapid pace of change with all of the existing IT challenges and new developments – such as IoT, blockchain, business intelligence, analytics, cybersecurity and so on – we’ve noticed that many organizations seem overwhelmed trying to keep up,” says Steve Melchiorre, CEO of Stratosphere Networks. “It’s difficult to stay up to date on the constantly evolving tech landscape, particularly for organizations with limited IT resources and budgets.”
Steve Malchiorre
Steve Malchiorre
While our hearts go out to our beleaguered tech friends in the C-suite, their misery is big opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs). More and more CIOs are turning in desperation to the channel to help them keep all their balls in the air and meet the expectations of numerous, demanding stakeholders, both internal and external.
Michael Chen, CEO and president of MSP CSP Networks, says more and more customers are becoming familiar with the term “MSP.” The challenge in 2019 will be convincing them to not shop on price and instead consider the long-term value their channel partner can provide.
Organizations are no longer under any delusions that the IT function is just the technical framework everyone else in the company works upon. Today, technology drives almost every source of value. Some say we’re in the midst of the digital transformation, and some say it’s already happened, and our heads just haven’t stopped spinning yet. Either way you slice it, businesses are struggling to adapt processes and organizational structure in a way that can handle the increased demand on IT, says Susie Cummings, senior vice president of managed services for SWC Technology Partners.
Susie Cummings
Susie Cummings
“On the flip side, they also realize that technology is becoming more specialized and they can no longer afford to handle all of it internally anymore,” says Cummings. “Outsourcing all or portions of their IT allows them to get specialized expertise when they need it.”
The bottom line is that everyone in the C-suite is trying to grow the company, grow market share, and make smart digital business transformations that will move the company forward. Jeff Dotzler, vice president of GFConsulting Group, says the challenge is to find ways to help CIOs champion change without alienating their people or upsetting the company culture.
Jeff Dotzler
Jeff Dotzler
“The ultimate concern for most CIOs is well beyond traditional IT and more focused on transformative and innovative solutions that will win market share and grow their businesses,” says Dotzler. “It is our job to help them develop a strategic road map that makes transformation and growth possible.
So where are the biggest opportunities for MSPs in 2019? They’re in the most common nightmares of today’s CIOs. Click through our slide show to see what managed service providers say are keeping their CIO customers up at night — and where they’re taking the opportunity to prove their value, grow their relationships, and rake in the revenue.
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