As the myriad paradigms of business have grown increasingly competitive, companies have come to depend heavily on digital innovation and transformative technologies to traverse the noise and stay relevant. This trend has gained traction post-disruption, as business ecosystems and consumers alike see their digital needs and requirements shift dramatically.
Disruption has transpired in consumers’ expectations, proliferated use of modern mobile devices and IoT, increased data, and more. Now more than ever, IT teams and developers have to carry the weight of responsibility to carry out and manage operations.
Although there is an obvious need to invest more in digital innovation, as we enter a period of uncertainty and unpredictability, multiple organizations are restricting their purse strings. As per Gartner, IT expenditure would decline by 8% in 2020 because of the fallout happening in the business world.
Finally, IT teams are bound to experience pressure to deliver new digital capabilities sooner than enough, but with fewer resources, and at a fraction of the cost. So the problem is – how can organizations make a conscious attempt to innovate, whilst also adapting to the emerging challenges?
The Increasing Pressure on IT
There is an increase in the demand for IT teams. IT leaders could not carry out all the projects they had promised in the previous year. A lack of resources, funds, and experience within development teams all play a central role in this shortfall. With pressure increasing to quickly adapt and deliver the value promised to customers, the burden on IT is snowballing.
The complexity of data integration has worsened the situation even more. IT and development teams that use legacy solutions face problems while building integrations. They have to implement long custom codes and perform extensive data mappings to integrate complex customer data, which takes between six to 12 weeks. Meanwhile, customers are forced to wait to have their needs addressed and met. Plus, as other employees lack the technical expertise to participate in the process, it’s likely that IT is pulled away from driving innovation to perform tasks such as data integration.
While it’s clear that the bottleneck around IT is tightening, complex and less-agile processes make it almost difficult for them to do anything about it. Companies, therefore, need to transform the way they manage digital services and empower other employees such as non-technical business users to actively get involved in their digital innovation efforts.
Self-Service Data Integration is the Future of Innovation
Companies can resolve these problems using a self-service data integration platform. It decentralizes IT and empowers non-technical business users to integrate customer data, which can help speed up digital innovation. Non-techies can then drive their own digital initiatives through the ability to consolidate data, integrate systems, and deliver delightful customer experiences without needing to implement complex codes.
Users can rely on features such as pre-built application connectors, shared templates, dashboards, intuitive screens, and AI-data mapping to implement data connections much more quickly. At the same time, IT is freed to focus on other business priorities that can help organizations innovate and transform faster.
By distributing the innovation workload amongst non-technical business users, IT will have more time to prioritize quick delivery of digital initiatives amid the uncertainty and instability of the disrupted business landscape.