Global Events Shifting Approach to Talent and Budget

Enterprise Communications Infrastructure and Services

Eyes shifting to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress. While there is a lot of consumer-grade stuff there, the conference/ expo offers insights into the enterprise industry trajectory too.  Many Gartner analysts will be onsite, and all others will be monitoring the announcements closely to gauge impacts on their enterprise client’s projects.  Plus, analysts, being curious beings, are always looking for a surprise or overlooked development to fine-tune advice, forecast and insights.   Clients should ask for an Inquiry with an analyst. Ask me if you need help identifying that analyst.  Everyone else should add the conference newsletter to your radar scan – subscribe here: https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/newsletter

Your peers and your customers, the latest buzz from the enterprise C-Suite:

Talent remains a focus, with challenges in recruiting and retaining. It remains unclear how recent tech layoffs affect these challenges.  Candidates eager for a job change are likely to lightening up on inspecting employer comp plans and ESG efforts.  Employee’s quest for security will make some to stay put.  Management needs to decide if the  employees who remain are the best ones to carry the company though the 2023 storm.

Economic pressures dominate, with many executive teams shifting focus to cost cutting.  A multinational client I heard from this week is looking for a 9% cut in IT budget. Ouch!  Executive teams find it challenging to balance strategic growth bets on things like CX enhancement, while also increasing operational efficiency.  Do More With Less.   Tech vendors need to prove they will actually help customers do more with less.

Heard on the Street.  Topics bubbling up from enterprise client conversations:  From CIO’s, “change fatigue” and “enterprise IT operating models.”  From Sales, “the role of the selling in digital.” From procurement “sustainability is less important” and “pendulum swings toward cost savings from resilience”

However, Gartner predicts enterprise IT spending is growing strongly and steadily despite the world economic slowdown and other threats of uncertainty. Overall growth in 2022 will have reached 8.3% in constant currency, to be followed by notably strong growth of 7.4% in 2023.

Speaking of cost savings, whose money is it?  IT budgets appear across the enterprise.  When the call comes down to cut spending, it causes financial finger pointing that delays the process, ignites turf battles over job-securing growth projects.    In a recent survey among IT buyers, they admitted where the money is stashed all around the organization.

2/3 of IT spending comes from multiple combinations of IT, business unit and departmental budgets.

Two opposing people are hunting for these honey pots; CFOs to cut it, and tech vendor salespeople to grab it.

It will be an entertaining game or hide and seek in 2023.