Nearshore Americas
enterprise architects

Businesses Hunt Down Enterprise Architects to Lay Out the Digital Journey

As global businesses look to harness digital technology, they are increasingly on the lookout for enterprise architects to help lay out their digital journey, according to the Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey 2017.

Up until two years year ago, hardly anyone knew about enterprise architects, whereas now they are one of the most sought-after professionals in the digital market.

“Many organizations are making aggressive investments in processes automation, implementing digital labor solutions to optimize their processes, improve quality and reduce costs,” said Gheorghe Vlad, a senior manager with KPMG.

In the survey, about 34% of respondents said they are already investing in, or are planning to invest in, digital labor, including robotic process automation and cognitive automation.

While the fastest growing demand for a technology skill this year was enterprise architecture, big data/analytics remained the most in-demand skill at 42%, up 8% over last year.

The number of firms putting a digital strategy in place has increased by a whopping 52% in the past two years (to 41% in 2017 from 27% in 2015), and organizations with a Chief Digital Officer have increased 39% over the last year.

They are turning to digital tools to stay on guard against the potential political and economic uncertainty, says the report.

IT budgets are primarily expanding, with only 21% of CIOs saying that their IT budgets were dwindling. Many smaller organizations are also turning to the cloud in order to access enhanced stability and resilience.

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Meanwhile, confidence in cyber security has continued to be eroded, with only one in five respondents saying that they were prepared to respond to any attack.

More than half of the respondents said they have suffered a serious attack in the past two years. Worst hit are government and utility sectors.

Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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