What does business need now?

The business of predicting the future of business is loud this year, with insights into the future becoming increasingly urgent: Transform, now, hurry. But no one could have predicted 2020 and the impact it would have on the business world. If we sit still for a moment, and sift through the noise, what are some of the things that businesses with a passion for growth actually need? What are the pain points? And what are the solutions?

The evergreen needs

There are evergreen needs that predate, and will outlast, the shocks brought by recent events. They may be more urgent right now, with IT challenges and solutions for these an ongoing quest, but they remain the top three business issues. According to Techaisle’s¹ latest annual survey these three needs are: Attracting and retaining customers, increasing profitability, and keeping pace with the competition.

Can IT meet some of these needs? Learn more.

Resilience is urgent

It’s clear that the largest public health crisis in living memory has generated economic concerns , affecting production, consumption and confidence across the world.       Now  survival depends on becoming more resilient. Needs that have now moved to the top of the list include: improving workforce productivity; attracting and retaining the right staff; reducing operational costs (including those associated with IT); improving the quality of products and processes; and increasing the effectiveness of sales and marketing. In short, do more with less.

The right IT can support these needs. Learn more.

Business IT trends

The focus is on connected business and efficient collaboration driven by data-based insights, which mean cloud, platforms, applications, security, and integrated workspaces. SMBs in 2020 are seeing the value of using data to assess performance against objectives and of using AI-driven, cloud-based analytical platforms to mitigate risk and increase opportunity. End-to-end security is becoming a necessity, in every layer of their IT stack. According to Forrester³, “2020 will be the year when companies become laser-focused on AI value, accelerate adoption, learn through mistakes, overcome data issues, and embrace new talent realities.” 

Recent research also shows that about half of SMBs are budgeting in the expectation that IT will drive business growth and help with exactly the needs outlined above. The flip side is that about half are not, citing a lack of IT skills and expertise.  But the trend is towards the as-a-Service provider and the use of expertise from outside business walls. To work with partners and build relationships that embed resilience into every fibre of the organisation.

Collaboration is key. Learn more.

Software as a Service – flexibility without waste

Cloud-based services reduce operational costs and can give all businesses an enterprise-level customer-facing digital presence.  They provide access to top-notch applications, without compatibility and operational management issues. IT capacity and functionality become a pay-a-you-go service, replacing sales of individual products and systems that may have been under- or over-utilised.

Managed services

Businesses that are not budgeting for IT to contribute to their growth, are stuck in systems where IT staff spend too much time on support and crises-management, without the expertise to deal with burgeoning complexity. Their unstable systems with too much downtime are ruining productivity.

Managed services promise to bridge the skills gap and return time to focus on business objectives. And when these services come with intelligent, AI-powered self-managing infrastructure, both IT and business resilience are soar. Find out more.

Intelligence

Forrester⁴ research concludes that “AI technologies can help enterprises engage customers, augment employees' intelligence, and operate efficiently.” HPE’s intelligent, predictive server maintenance works seamlessly with CDW’s IT management expertise.

HPE ProLiant has all the features you expect in a large enterprise infrastructure, and comes equipped with HPE InfoSight (at no extra cost), offering an extra layer of powerful analytics capability to any-sized business. HPE Infosight prevents problems before they arise. And you can monitor and manage servers remotely anywhere, any place with HPE iLO.

Choosing the right partner is key

CDW has more than 30 years of experience working with partners to design, implement and manage IT solutions for businesses.

We can modernise, automate and transform your business with the use of HPE solutions and technology. Contact a CDW expert to see how you can:

• Work remotely--monitor and manage servers remotely anywhere, any place
• Solve problems before they arise with predictive server maintenance
• Afford simple, flexible and secure storage
• Enjoy peace of mind with 360-degree security to prevent data loss
• Achieve reliable productivity with 99.99% uptime
• Flex your investment with a variety of usage-based investment models

¹  A Techaisle commissioned survey, ‘2020 Top 10 SMB and Midmarket business issues-challenges-priorities’.

²  Note prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): SME policy responses’.

³  A Forrester commissioned report, ‘Predictions 2020: Artificial Intelligence’.

⁴  A Forrester commissioned study, ‘A Guide To Navigating Our AI Technology Research Portfolio’, by Srividya Sridharan with Gene Leganza, Jeremy Vale.