Democratisation of IT is the future, But IT Decision Makers Feel They Should Be Supported More: ManageEngine Study

ManageEngine unveiled the findings of its study called the “IT at Work: 2022 and Beyond”, which gave innumerable insights into the future of IT

ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation, unveiled the findings of its study called “IT at Work: 2022 and Beyond”. The study, that has been based on two main aspects namely Democratisation of IT and Empowerment of IT, provided various insights into the role and future of information technology in the current era wherein every company is turning into a technology company.

The findings, which were presented by Shailesh Davey, co-founder and vice president of engineering at Zoho Corporation, examined the status, future and risks of information technology in large organisations across India. The highlight of the survey was that the success of IT in the future will not depend on IT alone, and will also have a lot to do with how they adapt to the ongoing transformation, and develop new relationships with people and technology.

“Our primary aim with this study was to shed light on the current state of ITDMs and the need for IT democratisation and empowerment for a well-knit organisation today. The swift acceleration of digitalisation catalysed by the pandemic has, without a doubt, made the role that IT plays in enterprises more vital than ever. The findings of the study also demonstrate how the involvement of ITDMs in implementing business decisions can boost organisational performance as a whole,” said Shailesh Davey, co-founder and vice president of Engineering at Zoho.

While the Global Survey sample size consists of inputs from 3,300 decision makers, 300 decision makers from organisations across India provided inputs for the India perspective of the survey. Out of the 300 DMs, 135 were IT decision makers such as chief information officers, managers, and IT teams, 165 were business decision makers such as chief financial officers, chief marketing officers,   and chief revenue officers among others.

The top five industries that took part in the survey are as follows:

• IT, technology and telecoms.
• Financial services.
• Retail, distribution and transport.
• Manufacturing, and production. 
• Business and professional services. 

Democratisation of IT is the Way Forward

The survey suggests that decision makers are of the view that democratisation of IT would be the way forward. The surveys states that majority of DMs believe that if their organisation decentralises its IT, there will be an increased scope for innovation. Furthermore, as many as 53%) of ITDMs said their organisations have already successfully decentralised their IT structures, and 44% of the remaining respondent ITDMs said their organisations are currently attempting to do so. 

Some of the other benefits of decentralising IT as per decision makers are as follows:

The study highlights that the skill of IT is now percolating to other teams with nearly 91 percent of all decision-makers reporting that collaboration between IT and other departments has increased. In addition to that, the decision making has also moved from IT teams to other teams with 97 percent of the business decision makers reporting that their department had the autonomy when it came to making technology decisions.

Davey, however, maintained that decentralisation of IT does not mean that the data becomes accessible to everyone at any time. “Compliances, governance and security of data should remain with the IT teams who will be solely responsible for it,” said Davey. In the same vein, 92 percent of the BDMs reported that their organisation’s IT department had near or complete control of data access for their department. 

Surprisingly, IT Decision Makers Feel They Should have been Supported More Over the Past Two Years

Although keeping in mind that some of the respondents were referring to the pre-pandemic period, 82% of respondents in India felt that their organisations have not supported them in the last two years, which in turn has led to a decrease in employee loyalty. The respondents were referring to support in terms of the financial, motivational and emotional aspects. Furthermore, 52% of India's ITDMs feel less loyal to their employers than they did two years ago, versus a global average of 49%, and 67% of India's ITDMs are more willing to make a risky career move than they were two years ago, versus a global average of 65%. What is all the more surprising is that, 76% of India’s ITDMs feel they were adequately consulted by their organisations when implementing flexible work models.

Over and above that, 53% of India’s ITDMs are currently actively looking for a new job. The profiles of respondents include board members, senior, mid-level and junior employees from the IT divisions. The study also highlights that organisations will need to work hard to retain their tech talent as 92% of ITDMs and BDMs agree that their IT department’s success is directly related to the overall organisational success. IT’s role is set to play an even more pertinent role in the next five years; therefore, organisations must take care to retain their IT talent, adds the study. 

Some other Notable Findings of the Study

A list of other notable findings of the study include:

• 91% of business and technology leaders In India agree that collaboration between IT and other lines of business has increased in the past two years.
• The decentralisation of IT has led to 68% of non-IT employees being more knowledgeable about IT than they were before 2020.
• 85% of ITDMs stated that organisations’ existing security landscapes need to change to ensure protection against cyberattacks, with 91% hoping that organisations can strengthen their IT security frameworks by continuing to invest in technologies like artificial  intelligence and machine learning.