Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 86 | Page 35

EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

One of the areas that CIOs should pay attention to is to cut the bloatware . This should be number one priority for CIOs : Bloatware is a US $ 84B money pit for businesses – and increasingly under scrutiny in a rocky economy . For IT , it means doing more with less , and cutting out discretionary bloatware spend . Just about every CIO I speak with is planning , or in some cases already in the process , of reviewing their app inventory across the enterprise . It ’ s important to know which apps should be retired , maintained , re-platformed or postponed .

In 2022 , companies took high-efficiency measures , like layoffs , to financially safeguard business . But in 2023 , companies will need to replace this headcount because customer expectations remain high . Enterprises will deploy more bot workers in 2023 to reduce human dependence on mundane tasks . Bonus : it ’ ll also reduce costs and the margin for human error . We ’ ve started to see this trend with understaffed retailers , but it ’ ll soon be mainstream .
Another area of focus and priorty for CIOs is automation . Rewriting automation is critical but unfortunately 47 % of developers don ’ t have access to the tools they need to build applications fast enough to meet deadlines . This year we can expect the next wave of automation to automate its own development to fill this gap . Code will be written by AI engines , intelligently
generating its own code . As low code and no-code platforms continue to enable the technology behind these innovations , we ’ ll see more maturity , more time savings ( cutting down development time by 90 %), fewer errors and faster development .
That said , CIOs must beware of deal sweeteners . With the broader macro environment we ’ re in , we can expect to see creative sales offers in an effort to secure longer-term contracts , but my recommendation is to review and reevaluate your contracts on any subscriptions often to ensure you still need it . Being mindful of what you are subscribed to gives organisations more flexibility when it comes to renewal time and stops you from buying more than you need . p
Just about every CIO I speak with is planning , or in some cases already in the process , of reviewing their app inventory across the enterprise . It ’ s important to know which apps should be retired , maintained , re-platformed or postponed .
PRASAD RAMAKRISHNAN , CIO , FRESHWORKS
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