The pandemic upends technology priorities: What's next for enterprises?

The pandemic rewrites technology roadmaps

At the start of the year, every enterprise had an IT roadmap, but those plans may now be obsolete. Arun Chandrasekaran, distinguished research vice president at Gartner, told CIO Dive that most enterprises have thrown them out the window because the priority is survival — establishing the right tools, processes, and technologies to support customer experience and keep operations running.

The pandemic exposed the gap between "adaptive" and "fragile" enterprises, a theme Gartner researched last year. Adaptive enterprises centralized key digital and innovation roles and had flexible technology funding models; fragile enterprises did not. Chandrasekaran believes fragile enterprises must embrace digital transformation in a fundamental way, which is "imperative" — enterprises that cannot adapt or innovate may face elimination.

2020 technology priorities shift dramatically

The COVID-19 pandemic completely reshaped 2020 technology priorities: migrations accelerated, innovation froze, and previous growth forecasts were erased. Enterprises had little room to maneuver, but specific technologies like video conferencing and virtual desktop infrastructure were critical to maintaining and securing operations.

Next, enterprises need to rationalize their portfolios to eliminate shadow IT and reduce costs. The limited spending leaders allow must serve business outcomes and improve customer experience, otherwise it is wasteful — and enterprises cannot afford waste right now.

"'Digital is better' is certainly a lesson to be learned," John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president analyst at Gartner, told CIO Dive, "but some enterprises have suffered huge financial losses and cannot afford to learn it right now." Lovelock noted that poorly managed enterprises are neither beneficial to the industry nor able to offer opportunities for growth or financial stability; they need to make room for enterprises capable of growth. This means saying goodbye to "zombie enterprises" trapped in debt cycles, able only to cover daily expenses but unable to invest in growth.

Recovery in sight, but IT spending will still decline

Signs of recovery are emerging. Despite a potential second wave, enterprises are looking toward 2021, treating survival this year as an achievement. In January, Gartner expected global IT spending to reach $3.9 trillion in 2020; but over time, the firm expects it to decline 8%, totaling $3.4 trillion. Cloud computing stands out, expected to grow 19% this year.

"We are starting to feel better, but not yet optimistic." — John-David Lovelock

As enterprises realign their technology roadmaps, CIO Dive interviewed and consulted more than twenty experts across the technology stack to understand the adjusted priorities of 2020. The following is CIO Dive's analysis of pre-pandemic, mid-2020, and 2021 roadmap forecasts.

If you have insights on how the pandemic reshaped 2020 technology plans, please email us at [email protected].

Related reading

• New priorities for enterprise technology in 2020— Cost control is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity.
• New cybersecurity priorities for 2020— The security perimeter of the office disappeared, forcing enterprises to expand or procure more technology to support remote employees.
• New cloud priorities for 2020— As the full-year outlook worsened, cloud became a key differentiator.
• New data priorities for 2020— Early adopters thrived, and technology enabled operations to pivot rapidly to digital.
• New software priorities for 2020— A reflection on how to create value for customers quickly put software budgets under scrutiny.

Chart: Pandemic flattens global IT spending growth

Revised global IT spending forecast for 2020 (USD)

Source: Gartner (May 2020)

Production team

Authors: Naomi Eide (senior editor), Roberto Torres (reporter), Samantha Ann Schwartz (associate editor)
Design and development: Nami Sumida
Illustration: Yujin Kim