A period of unprecedented innovation has seen enterprise IT leave the back office and take centre stage in the creation of new services, solutions and experiences.
But with each new innovation, new challenges are also emerging around trust and security, making this intensely exciting time for IT leaders one that is also fraught with risk.
In fact, according to our new Enterprise Technology Trends report, trust and security is the second-highest priority for enterprise IT leaders – second only to customer experience.
To compile the report, we surveyed 100+ IT leaders from enterprises around the world to find out how they’re tackling the biggest trends affecting them today.
Where do they stand on things like customer and employee experience? How far up their to-do list are new technologies like AI, voice and blockchain? And what do they make of the trust and security implications of abundant technology?
Read the report for a full breakdown of IT leaders’ thoughts on all of the above, or keep reading to learn more about the trust and security factor.
Trust in the age of tech – easy come, even easier go
People may be more willing than ever to trust companies with their data in return for better experiences, but slip-ups are increasingly likely to be both reputationally and financially ruinous.
To help them avoid that fate, 54% of IT organisations have a dedicated security team or officer in place. Other headlines from our survey include:
79% of IT leaders say security and trust is a high priority
42% say their security and trust strategy is completely defined
44% say their security and trust skills are advanced
That ties or trumps every single one of the ten trends covered by the survey, except for – you guessed it – customer experience.
Indeed, the two are heavily linked in the minds of our survey group: 95% of our survey agreed with the statement ‘public concern over data privacy has prompted us to increase security investments’.
Of course, public concern (and outrage) has led to regulation which IT leaders also seem to have embraced with gusto:
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has prompted 88% to increase security investments
88% also claim to be completely transparent with customers over how their data is used
IT leaders are taking an ever-wider view of security and trust
The consequences of security breaches – in terms of loss of customer trust and potentially massive financial penalties – means there has never been a broader security and trust mandate for IT leaders.
According to our survey, internal security threats are now viewed as being as serious as external ones by a landslide majority (85%), prompting most IT organisations (78%) to monitor how employees access and use customer data.
It’s no surprise, then, that security and identity technology sits at the top of not one but two important lists: the list of IT leaders’ EX initiatives, as well as their list of CX initiatives (where it’s tied for top spot with system or data integration).
An exciting and decisive moment for IT organisations
As the survey reveals, with great innovation comes great responsibility, and IT leaders are taking security and trust seriously.
However, the fact that despite the risks it’s still ‘only’ their second-top issue is evidence of our wider findings: enterprise IT organisations might be in the most exciting and decisive moment in their histories, but with only so many resources, prioritisation is a necessity.
Read the full report to understand how IT leaders are faring when it comes to developing cohesive strategies around the most critical enterprise technology trends and technologies.
Get the Enterprise Technology Trends report.
