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I recently had the pleasure of appearing on the Davood for Thought podcast. The host, Davood Ghods, is Vice President of Government Solutions at Direct Technology, so it was both enlightening and enjoyable to share insights with him. We discussed how we as an industry need to pursue innovation to solve real-world problems, as opposed to pursuing innovation for the sake of innovation.
Specifically, we talked about how a “business first” mindset would impact the following topics/trends in 2022 and beyond:
“Business IT” must replace “shadow IT.”
A CIO, recalling a quote from his CEO, said this during a roundtable that I participated in last year. I wholeheartedly agree because we need to stop thinking about “controlling” business users/employees adopting new technologies and start thinking about better supporting them.
Here’s what may sound like an uncomfortable truth: IT no longer has exclusive rights to technology. Nor do non-IT employees perceive digital tools as mysterious “things” that work in magical ways that only IT people understand. Let’s face it: We’re all technologists now. A college professor recently told me that Python is the top language students are currently learning–more than any actual, spoken language.
This means business users can t