Indeed, one of three IT buyers ranked cost-cutting as a top consideration for new technology investments IDC researchers, meanwhile, consider “cost containment and efficiencies” as one of three pillars of business growth heading into 2025. When enterprise technology leaders were asked how their organization was going to deliver global growth in the coming year, cost containment and efficiencies, cited by 44 percent of respondents, was second only to increased automation (49 percent) and just ahead of increased innovation (39 percent). “Cost-cutting to fund innovation allows you to explore legacy system issues with your customers and discuss improvements that could allow investments in high-priority technologies like AI and cybersecurity,” explain executives at Telarus. “Technology bundling is a great place to start the conversation. Bundling – combining multiple software applications or services into a single package – is an asymmetrical advantage for any sized business because it can help them run their organization at a tenth of the cost.” Experts Required As businesses look to fund innovation and reach higher levels of “digital maturity,” they will be looking for partners that can exhibit specialized category expertise to fill the skills gaps within their organizations, suggest the findings from Telarus and IDC. When asked to consider what would most likely lead them to rely on the guidance of a technology advisor or meet with a potential new channel partner, unique expertise and the challenge of making decisions in categories with which they have less expertise repeatedly topped factors such as existing relationship and personal recommendations. Conversely, when IDC asked enterprise technology leaders to choose their most serious challenges to executing digital initiatives in their organizations, four in 10 respondents said external partners they relied upon do not have the right capabilities. This was the second most common response, behind only the complexity of integrating with legacy infrastructure, named by 41 percent. Similarly, a lack of regional expertise to effectively CHANNEL MANAGEMENT AI Inside the Enterprise More than half of the IT decision makers surveyed by Telarus said AI is a key driver of tech buying decisions, compared to just 13% who said the same in 2023. What’s more, 87% indicated that AI is the number one area in which they would welcome a new advisor for help. The Telarus survey offered some insight into how businesses are deploying AI within their organizations and where a conversation about AI might go. In terms of where respondents currently stand with their AI efforts, 41% have initiated AI pilots, while an additional 29% have a “well informed plan” on how AI will be regulated and implemented. The remainder of respondents are either in the learning phase or enabling experimentation, with only 1% of respondents having disallowed AI use. Customer experience is a solid number one in terms of the area of business where AI is being used, followed by cybersecurity and cloud. The top priorities for AI within CX include virtual agents (58%), data analytics (52%), real-time agent assist (46%), and marketing and messaging (39%). In general, significant percentages of adopters are using AI across all business functions, from customer support to marketing to operations to sales. Top desired outcomes include productivity (79%), improved CX (74%), automation (59%), improved employee experience (55%), cost reduction (51%) and innovation (43%). Which Departments Currently Leverage AI Solutions? Customer success/support 68% Marketing 53% Operations 50% Sales 39% Finance 36% R&D 34% Not using yet 7% Source: Telarus Turning to possible barriers to AI adoption, the top concerns respondents are looking to manage include data security/privacy (63%), compliance/regulatory (44%), hallucinations (43%), bias in outputs (41%), talent availability (40%) and cost (37%). o Most serious challenges to executing digital initiatives in the organization are: Complexity of integration with existing IT 41% External partners that we rely on for our IT do not have the right capabilities 40% Lack of regional expertise to effectively roll out global technology initiatives that comply with local requirements 35% Inadequate networks or connectivity 31% Organizational issues (e.g. silos, territorial disputes) 28% Lack of resources, skill or development capabilities 19% Management issues 16% Lack of budget/funding 13% Source: IDC 42 CHANNELVISION | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2024
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4Njc=