GoTo, the company making IT management, support, and business communication easy with flagship products GoTo Resolve, Rescue, and GoTo Connect, has announced findings from its IT Priorities: 2023 Report. The report, conducted by Frost & Sullivan and commissioned by GoTo, looked at the global trends of 1,000 IT decision-makers at companies with less than 1,000 employees. Among the Key IT Trends in Australia, the survey continues to see businesses consolidating tools, with 81% of Australian respondents considering consolidation of communication and IT management and support tools an important initiative for 2023. As an added benefit, this consolidation helps to alleviate the burden on IT, a goal of 97% of Australian respondents.
As economic uncertainty, scrutinised budgets, and overburdened resources continue to be the norm, IT decision-makers are faced with determining the right set of goals and objectives to maximise their investment, grow their business, and streamline their processes. The survey uncovered four main business objectives to ensure their organisation’s success and support for their employees and customers. These top objectives include growing revenue, improving operational efficiencies, reducing costs, and increasing customer satisfaction. The key trends uncovered in this survey will allow teams to reach these objectives.
“IT management and support solutions will see a lot of re-evaluating by organisations in 2023. Economic uncertainty combined with mounting pressures from customers mean teams will be strategically planning the best steps and investments to make,” says Lindsay Brown, VP and General Manager of APJ, GoTo. “As organisations look forward, it is important to consider the impact their decisions will have on budgets as well as their IT staff and teams, as this will cause a ripple effect through to the rest of the organisation. Consolidation looks to address not only reduced or reprioritised budgets, but also business productivity”.
Key IT Trends in Australia
- Consolidation for enhanced productivity and cost savings: 32% of businesses are planning to switch vendors to reduce costs. 82% of respondents consider consolidation of communication, collaboration, and IT management and support tools an important initiative of the year. 92% have completed, planned, or are in process with these consolidation efforts. The top reason for consolidation was to give solutions to the IT team that are easier to manage increase employee productivity, followed by increasing employee productivity, and then ease to upgrade and scale.
- With choice comes responsibility: Nearly half (42%) said it was very important to consider reducing the burden on IT when choosing new software, compared to only 35% last year. 71% of company leaders say they are more involved in the purchase process of products and tools than they were a year ago.
- Support IT teams with better IT support tools: 52% of organisations say they saw an increase in the IT workload in the past year. 98% of respondents said they want to reduce the burden on IT through the right software choice. 39% of respondents said that their reason for digital tool upgrades and change was driven by IT team preference.
- Hybrid work is still the preferred way to work: While the survey saw almost double the amount of in-office workers compared to when the same question was asked in 2022 (37% now compared to 19% last year), hybrid work still remains the gold standard with nearly half the respondents (47%) splitting their time between home and the office. Two-thirds of offices have official guidelines, with 67% of Australian businesses having a requirement regarding the number of days knowledge-based employees in the hybrid work model should work from the office.
- Find new ways to prioritise the customer: While businesses will only function if the right IT support and communication tools are enabled for employees, it’s equally important that externally facing teams have the right technology to seamlessly support customers. 63% of respondents plan to spend more on customer experience (CX) technology in 2023 than they did in 2022.
- Partners play a key role in decision-making: 46% of businesses choose a Partner versus 29% going to the solution provider directly to find new business communication and IT support tools.
For more information about GoTo’s IT Priorities Report, please visit: www.goto.com/it-priorities-report.