IN a comprehensive study focused on the Philippine market titled “IT at work: 2022 and beyond,” ManageEngine revealed that 84 percent of respondents believe that the IT department is more responsible for business innovation than ever before. Additionally, 77 percent of decision-makers felt that IT could drive greater innovation if it had a stronger leadership position.

The research study points out that the role of IT teams has been reinvented by accelerated digital transformation and strategic responsibility coupled with increased emphasis on business resilience, innovation and agility. IT teams are implementing advanced tech while they facilitate business growth.

Furthermore, 65 percent of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) said that their organization uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to defend systems from cyberattacks. Also, 78 percent said that their organization uses advanced data analytics to detect anomalous behavior, and 67 percent disclosed that it is deployed to gain correlation and contextualization.

While IT teams are responsible for facilitating digital innovation and ensuring networks are cybersecure, the survey indicated IT departments lacked the required support from their organizations to effectively take on this responsibility. The research revealed that 59 percent of ITDMs in the Philippines felt that their organization should have supported them more in the last two years. In addition, 47 percent of ITDMs stated that their opinion was not taken into account while their organizations were embracing hybrid work models.

As the tech landscape is witnessing tremendous transformation, 60 percent of business decision-makers (BDMs) in the Philippines indicated that a lack of training is a barrier that employees face in trying to take full advantage of technology. This is the highest compared to both the global average of 47 percent and the data from Asean peers like Singapore (48 percent), Malaysia (45 percent) and Indonesia (47 percent). However, 78 percent of BDMs in the Philippines said that their department receives training in technology processes and tools from an internal training team.

Other key findings:

Ninety-three percent of ITDMs said that there was increased collaboration between their organizations’ IT teams and other departments in the past two years.

Furthermore, 97 percent of ITDMs stated that their IT department works well together with C-suite professionals.

Fifty-eight percent of ITDMs revealed that their organization has already completed the decentralization of IT functions, while 42 percent said that decentralization is still ongoing.

Seventy-two percent of respondents believed decentralization of IT would lead to professional growth through upskilling. At the same time, decentralization would also bring new challenges, as 45 percent of respondents said that they need to maintain IT security levels and prioritize user experiences.

Key takeaways:

– Retaining tech talent is of great importance.

– IT teams hold substantial influence and decision-making capability.

– IT will have a greater position in setting strategy for the organization as a whole.

– Amidst democratization and empowerment, technical training needs to be improved.

– New technologies like AI and ML could help Philippine organizations take a more proactive approach on cybersecurity.

The study was conducted by Vanson Bourne and involved 150 ITDMs in various organizations across the Philippines. Respondents were surveyed on topics like the role of IT, artificial intelligence, sustainability and cybersecurity.

ManageEngine is the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corp. Its real-time IT management tools help ensure optimal performance of IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, applications, endpoints and more.