We recently spoke with Alastair Pooley, Snow Software’s CIO, about key findings from Snow’s 2023 IT Priority Report and the associated opportunities for ITAM.
This report highlights a range of findings from an October 2022 poll of 800 CIOs based in Australia, Germany, the UK, and the USA. The aim was to unearth the challenges, opportunities and priorities facing CIOs and IT leaders in 2023 and beyond.
So, what are the key priorities and how can ITAM help?
Here are two along with Alastair’s key thoughts.
Reducing IT costs
Report findings: During the past 12 months, 32% of IT leaders said their organisation’s top IT priority was to reduce IT spend.
“FinOps is an area that has a lot of promise when we think about reducing costs, and it’s a natural fit for ITAM. FinOps is fairly straightforward for ITAM professionals to pick up; however, it does have different terminology and does require cloud knowledge, and not all cloud providers are the same.”
“If an ITAM team can say, for example, ‘We have 30 SQL licenses that we bought but are not running them on premise. We can use those licenses in the cloud without charge’, this becomes a great cost savings that comes from ITAM and FinOps teams working together. I’ve actually spoken with a couple of organisations that are consolidating these functions, bringing FinOps and ITAM teams together.”
Delivering digital transformation
Report findings: During the past 12 months, 30% of IT leaders said their organisation’s top IT priority was delivering digital transformation.
“It’s about understanding your estate, understanding what’s out there and knowing what’s in use. People are moving from on premise into SaaS and are struggling to manage the number of SaaS applications. There’s a great opportunity for ITAM to help organisations get their arms around the explosion in SaaS technology.”
“We’re happier now buying SaaS applications than from before COVID hit. I think this is a permanent shift in how we buy software. But, it’s harder to manage. This is where ITAM can really help. Managing this and helping to prevent any surprises when unexpected cloud bills arrive is something ITAM professionals can really help with.”
Shifting to a trusted advisor position
Although not an IT priority, an interesting stat from the report is: 91% of respondents said they were “a trusted advisor to the business”.
Said Alastair, “IT is becoming more of an orchestrator rather than the owner of all IT. It’s no longer a command-and-control central function. You’ll now find technical people spread out throughout business units. IT leaders are becoming strategic advisors, and this is what ITAM professionals should aspire towards.”
Listen now to the Change Makers podcast episode with Alastair Pooley.
If you’re an ITAM Forum members, log in to access helpful, related resources:
- Infographic: How ITAM contributed to FinOps
- On-demand Webinar: How ITAM is fundamental to FinOps success
- eBook: ITAM Power Skills: Stakeholder Engagement