The last two years have seen great changes in priority for CIOs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), brought about primarily by the Covid pandemic. We saw a rapid shift to work-from-home or work-from-anywhere policies, which required greater portability and connectivity. We saw supply chain disruptions that impacted companies of all sizes. And labor shortages caused us to re-evaluate long-held beliefs about staffing and career paths.
The SMB CIO who weathered the storm best were those who were already preparing for such possibilities by putting frameworks in place before they were needed. With that in mind, here are some priorities for 2022 to help the SMB CIO start planning ahead to be well-prepared for whatever the future may bring.
Cloud Migration Can Jumpstart Innovation
The adoption of cloud-based solutions ensures that as technology advances, which is happening at a rapid pace, and new features become available, all of these upgrades can be implemented almost seamlessly, with no requirement for a major project or outlay of capital to unlock that innovation and deliver new services.
With all the uncertainty due to the Covid pandemic—including supply chain problems, employee absences, and work-from-home challenges—it is imperative to provide flexibility in how and where software systems are used. Cloud-based systems are better able to handle these shifts in priority
or strategy.
For most SMB companies, the shift to the cloud starts with productivity suites such as Microsoft’s Office 365, which provides a launching pad to experience the benefits of cloud-based systems with minimal investment in time and resources. Office 365, along with other applications such as Power BI and Microsoft Teams, have helped employees become accustomed to the idea of always running on the latest version of software, with access to new functionality multiple times throughout the year. In addition, the software is accessible from anywhere, whether in the office or working remotely from home, using an array of mobile devices or even anything with a web browser.
Once workers get used to office productivity apps, it’s not a big jump to see the benefits of the cloud for any department: human resource functions such as onboarding, benefits, and payroll; accounting needs like expense management, budgeting, and AP automation; sales and customer
service functionality, such as portals and EDI.
The greatest thing about migrating to the cloud is not what you gain initially, but what it paves the way for. As the technology evolves, the constantly upgraded, scalable solutions will provide new ways of enhancing your business. It is important for the SMB CIO to help other business leaders in their company see the possibilities and begin by embracing frameworks that pave the way for those innovations. Cloud solutions are a critical part of those frameworks.
Don’t Take Cybersecurity For Granted
Large enterprises typically have a cybersecurity team and a Chief Information Security Officer, or CISO. In smaller companies, we must do more with less, and when it comes to cybersecurity, that’s a huge challenge. Unfortunately, there are a seemingly unlimited number of bad actors who are devising strategies to break into computer systems and hold the data for ransom.
The SMB CIO can’t afford to take a chance, hoping that criminals will overlook their company just because they aren’t a large enterprise. According to Forbes, in recent data presented to the U.S. Senate, most ransomware attacks are against companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.
It must be a high priority for any SMB CIO to make sure they have a cybersecurity plan in place for 2022, and to revisit it regularly to make sure it stays relevant in this ever-changing cyber threat landscape.
Automation Can Boost Small Teams
The SMB CIO is tasked with finding ways to compete with larger companies, albeit with fewer resources. A large company can hire a new employee and it might not be a big deal. But in SMBs, adding headcount can feel like a rare luxury. When there are more roles and responsibilities than people, we end up wearing multiple hats. At every opportunity, we need to ensure that everyone is working on tasks using their unique skill set, experience, and creativity. If certain tasks can be done more efficiently and accurately with automation, we need to at least consider the possibilities. That could allow our talent to focus on other valuable business priorities.
Employees might worry that automation will replace them. However, in small companies, we need every person on the team. They are vital in creating value, serving our customers, and working together as a team. The promise of automation is to help employees get more done with less. Employees learn and use skills that will continuously be in demand, even as we enter the acceleration economy.
An SMB CIO must find ways to leverage digital technology and, in doing so, keep up with and even surpass larger competitors in ways that were previously out of reach. Automation technologies provide a way to align with the priorities of company leadership to bring value to customers, maximize profits, and grow company value
Three Keys to Data Management
Heading into 2022, it’s imperative that an SMB CIO have a strong understanding of the company’s valuable data resources. For many small and mid-sized companies, data may be one of the most valuable assets. That is why so many companies are targeted with ransomware or hacking attacks. The criminals know that if they can control a company’s data, that gives them leverage over the company.
There are several areas of data management that should be high priorities for an SMB CIO: security, availability, and visibility. For security, it means adapting your cybersecurity plans to ensure that the most valuable data is protected first. If your data is stored in the cloud, then cloud security is extremely important. Availability refers to ensuring that you have reliable backups, that there are alternate means to access the data if certain channels are unavailable, such as in a disaster or even just an Internet outage. And finally, visibility is focusing on analysis and tools such as dashboards and reports through products like Power BI.
SMBs Need AI, Too
It would be tempting for an SMB CIO to bypass AI, thinking that it is still out of reach, especially for a smaller company. However, advances in various types of AI have ensured that it is indeed accessible. In fact, the benefits of AI are even more attractive to the SMB, due to their ability to help a company boost productivity and develop new data-driven services.
- Here are some examples of areas to look into:
- Machine learning (ML) and deep learning – decision-making tech that gets smarter the more you use it. AP automation is one common business workflow that can benefit from ML.
- Natural language processing – think of customer service chatbots or automated help lines that can understand natural language instead of endless numeric menus.
Future Proof Your Business
We don’t know what the next big disruption might be, but SMB CIOs can’t afford to wait to see what happens and then react. It is important to begin implementing technology that is future-proof and designed to protect the companies we serve, even while our teams do more with less.
This article appears in the Predictions 2022 Edition of the Acceleration Economy Journal Download the Full Journal Here
