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by Ronald Ravel, Director B2B at Dynabook South Africa

Given the ongoing complications following the pandemic, the macroeconomic situation and rising energy prices, predicting what the future holds in 2023 is anything but a simple task.

However, while the current state of the technology market remains uncertain in some sectors, businesses still need to make sensible technology investments to ensure growth, success and resilience. This article will attempt to make some predictions on which technologies and solutions will take off at speed next year. 

Upgrading old devices will be instrumental to energy saving

Sustainability has surged as a top trend for the upcoming year. Although the topic has been talked about for many years, the need for sustainable practices is moving up the business agenda, as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues become ever more important, particularly with the recent increase in energy prices affecting businesses across all industries. As we enter 2023, companies will look to make more sustainable choices. One area where this is likely to gain attention is upgrading to the latest technologies with a view to saving energy and being more environmentally friendly.

Our research found that 64% of European small and midsize businesses (SMBs) consider purchasing decisions around laptops to be more important now than before the pandemic, with hybrid working remaining the norm for many. As older devices have a tendency to degrade the battery life of laptops, this has led to users more frequently using energy to power their tools. This, combined with the increase in energy costs, means that companies will need to upgrade to newer technologies that can provide improved battery performance. And with wider sustainability targets becoming the front and centre for many businesses, technology sourced with lower environmental and social impact will also be an area some will start to look at for new purchases.

While replacing devices is key to business growth and resilience, companies will need to be more ethically minded too on how they dispose of old devices through initiatives such as reselling and recycling, which will ultimately reduce their carbon footprint. 

Offering more initiatives to tackle the digital skills shortage

Following both COVID-19 and Brexit, UK organisations are currently facing a lack of qualified IT professionals with relevant digital skills. In fact, recent research from Virgin Media O2 found that the digital skills gap is costing the UK economy £12.8bn every year.

A cost-effective way to find new talent in the technology industry is to invest more in digital skills training and recruitment programmes. Whether new hires come straight from university, apprenticeships, graduate recruitment schemes or from people switching careers, businesses offering the relevant training programmes will be able to shape and train employees to acquire the skill set they need.

Another way to get around the skills shortage is by enabling highly qualified employees to play a central role in managing and supporting staff when they are working remotely. As face-to-face communication cultivates a strong sense of employee engagement, businesses that implement a successful and bespoke hybrid working model can improve their team's skill sets through the use of cloud-based solutions.

With technology constantly evolving and business models moving at pace, in 2023 and beyond, businesses will increasingly need to implement training and graduate programmes to upskill future employees' skill sets and prepare them for the hybrid digital world.

Security will continue to be at the forefront of the hybrid workforce

Hybrid working has presented a number of benefits for businesses and employees. However, it has also created significantly higher data security risk levels to contend with and so security needs to remain paramount and at the forefront of business strategies across all industries.

While large organisations strive towards increasing their security measures, our research revealed that only 46% of European SMBs regard improving their cyber security infrastructure as an investment priority for the next 12 months. However, this still leaves a large percentage of businesses that are not focusing their efforts on security and shows not enough is being done across the industry to prevent cyber attacks on sensitive company data.

In 2023, SMBs need to really make this a centre point of their strategies and look to tighten security measures, ensuring remote staff workers are using cloud-based solutions to save data. Providing employees with secure devices which include features such as two-factor authentication and Windows 11 can also help mitigate risk.

Supply chain issues continue but will ease

Supply chain challenges remain following the pandemic, and will continue to do so into next year - nearly a quarter (23%) of businesses anticipate this as an ongoing challenge until at least next summer. This has also not been helped recently by global economic issues, which have ultimately led to a decline in shipments of technology devices across Europe.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel as we enter 2023, and as supply chains begin to stabilise, the market will be able to shift to supply keeping up with demand and return to a bit of normality in delivering within expected time frames, easing the full supply chain for technology devices. It’s also likely we’ll see more organisations opening up new, accessible manufacturing facilities in varying locations to increase production and prevent global issues affecting them in such a devastating manner again.

Technologies to boost SMB employee productivity

According to our research, 19% of European SMBs listed employee productivity as their number one concern, which is important for businesses to look at addressing and supporting employees to avoid this. For any business, especially SMBs, any amount of lost productivity could be costly.   

In order to overcome productivity roadblocks, SMBs will be looking to technologies such as devices, secure communications tools, and device accessories in their bid to enhance the productivity of and re-engage their remote workforce. To facilitate this, in 2023, we’ll likely see IT budgets be re-prioritised towards more reliable tech solutions and increased IT support, so employees feel supported, wherever they work from.

Conclusion

The macroeconomic situation coupled with the ongoing global energy crisis has caused a ripple effect in almost every sector this past year. As we enter 2023, and businesses look to establish themselves in this hybrid landscape that is forever changing, it’s vital that companies continue to prioritise their IT budgets to ensure they are set up to thrive.