Bouncing back from Covid IT leaders find grounds for optimism
With the retreat of Covid and hybrid working bedding in, 39% say they are more optimistic than last year, compared with 18% who are less
Amid tumultuous times, UK IT leaders polled by Computing say they are more optimistic about the future of their businesses than last year.
The poll, part of a Delta study into IT leadership priorities challenges, which was carried out in July 2022, revealed that 8% of IT leaders are much more optimistic with a further 31% more optimistic, giving a total of 39% seeing positive signs compared with 18% who said they were less optimistic than in 2021. None said they were "much less optimistic"; 43% said they were no more or less optimistic than last year.
It should be noted that the poll was carried out before the full extent of possible energy price rises had become apparent and prior to the Bank of England's downbeat economic forecast.
Base 120 UK IT leaders. 0% selected "much less optimistic".
The main reason for increased positivity was, of course, the diminishing impact of the pandemic and the widespread opening up of the economy compared with 2021.
"Reactive infrastructure required following Covid has settled and bedded in allowing for more focus on strategic aims," said a head of systems development in the health sector.
Another sector that was hard particularly hit by the pandemic was education, with schools and universities forced to close and lessons and lectures moved online. IT leaders in this section spoke of their relief with things returning to something like normal. Most pupils and students are now back in class, and while the number of overseas students is still down, some are able to participate online thanks to the efforts made during the pandemic. "More people returning to campus, foreign students remote learning," said a head of IT in higher education.
Hybrid work had also improved agility for this engineering firm: "Covid restrictions easing is allowing us to promote our service work. It's easier to get suppliers to visit, and hybrid working is working well."
Elsewhere, there was a feeling that pandemic-driven investment in technology would provide a good springboard for future development. For example, automating various manual data input tasks had left a vending machine supplier in a positive place. "We've made a good recovery after Covid and a major shift in credit card technology and remote machine monitoring is driving efficiency in our planning and also reducing costs," said the firm's IT manager.
However, there were those for whom the future looked more worrying. Charity and third-sector organisations were disproportionately represented here, with IT leaders fearing they and their clients are about to take a hit from "the challenging economic context", rising energy prices, and inflation more generally.
The cost of living crisis was a prevailing theme among those in distribution and transport and retail too, and a CTO at a business services firm said that customers would expect suppliers to absorb the cost increases: "It is mostly to do with clients who have a lot of power and are expecting more and more for the same money. We have to develop systems to suit them, but we pay for those systems."
See also: Brexit is having a negative impact, say 47% of UK IT leaders
While it was only mentioned a few times in the comments, Brexit obviously played a part in views of the future. The 9% of respondents who said Britain leaving the EU had had a positive effect were all either optimistic about the coming year or felt things would be "about the same", whereas those who were not optimistic were more likely to see Brexit as a negative factor. However, the boost of coming out of Covid and the promise of new tech like was enough to counter the Brexit effect for some.
"Automation & AI have generated business opportunities," said the CIO at an engineering firm who felt that "trading, supplier and staff issues" due to Brexit had been at least partially offset by these new opportunities.
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