4 Priorities B2B Tech Leaders Should Strive To Meet This Year

For businesses large and small, the past few years have been a whirlwind of digitization driven by ever-expanding IT budgets. This expense has largely continued Despite the current economic uncertainty, while B2B technology leaders continue to buy technology, they are also looking for ways to become more efficient and value-oriented in the tools and software they buy.

This is especially true in the enterprise e-commerce space, as business sellers continue to adjust to the cash-light market that has prevailed over the last 12 months. As B2B companies become more reliant on digital solutions to drive sales and reduce costs, CTOs and CIOs will be increasingly involved in business resiliency initiatives, ensuring both emerging and established technologies are leveraged. to help navigate a rapidly evolving trading ecosystem.

Here are four goals that all B2B technology executives should strive to meet.

1. Keep a close eye on profitability

Global IT spending is projected to reach $4.5 trillion this year, indicative of the trend that when financial storm clouds gather, productivity-boosting technologies are valued more than ever. Despite this, CTOs and CIOs are expected to achieve more with less for the foreseeable future, which means finding more efficient solutions that offer lower cost of ownership.

Optimizing costs does not necessarily mean refusing to sign new software contracts. Often, in fact, the smartest way to reduce costs is to replace legacy systems with more modern and flexible tools that are better suited to the organization’s current business needs. An eCommerce solution that can manage both B2B and B2C applications could replace two separate legacy tools, for example, drastically reducing overall IT costs.

Low-code and no-code sales tools also ease the financial burden of cumbersome software maintenance, something that can absorb a large chunk of a company’s technology budget. CTOs and CIOs should focus on platforms with built-in development tools so that any fixes can be done in-house cheaply.

2. Build for agility

In a context of rising inflation and skyrocketing prices, it’s easy for companies to slip into “status quo” mode: content to simply ride out the storm with no expectations of expansion. This may sound like a wise strategy ⁠ but in the fiercely competitive B2B space, if you’re not setting yourself up for growth, then you’re losing ground.

IT leaders need to keep scalability in mind in everything they do in the coming months. That doesn’t mean stretching yourself too thin, of course, especially during these trying times. But does It means being strategic and implementing agile and flexible systems now so that you are ready for whatever the market throws at you and can quickly adapt and grow in response to new opportunities.

3. Focus on flexible implementation

Business sellers have to work more and more on customer acquisition. Like one company sales leader put it recently:: “Last year, the fish jumped in our boat. This year, we have to go fishing.” Flexibility is the key to any successful B2B initiative: if you can’t quickly adapt to changing demand patterns, customers will simply switch to providers who can.

For this reason, as we move into 2023, IT leaders will need to prioritize flexible software deployment. Companies should have the power to decide if their commercial software is hosted in a public cloud, such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or Digital Ocean, or if it is inside a private cloud.

Better yet, in the face of uncertain market conditions, B2B technology leaders should explore hybrid solutions—solutions that combine public and private clouds to maximize scalability and resiliency at times of peak demand while keeping costs low.

4. Don’t get left behind on cybersecurity

When it comes to cyberattacks, 2022 was a painful year for businesses: Attacks on US organizations. grew up 57%while UK companies faced a 77% increase year with year. Unfortunately, with experts forecasting an increase in “cybercrime-as-a service”2023 is not shaping up to be much better.

Given their high-value orders, large transactions, and diverse customer bases, B2B sellers are easy prey for cyber attackers. The fact that few companies can survive even a limited period of online downtime further strengthens the resolve of hackers, who are aware that many companies would rather pay a ransom than rebuild a shattered digital system.

With this in mind, CTOs and CIOs need to ensure that cybersecurity measures are built into the fabric of their eCommerce ecosystems and not treated as an afterthought. It is equally important to focus on customizable solutions that can be shaped to meet the unique security needs of different industries.

Take advantage of new opportunities

The role of the B2B technology executive is becoming more demanding, there is no doubt about that. In the context of deepening economic uncertainty, IT leaders need to boost productivity, increase efficiency, protect against cybercriminals, and help future-proof their businesses while reducing costs.

That’s a big question that effectively puts IT leaders at the center of strategic planning for their organizations and requires technology decision makers to step up and lead their businesses in smarter, more sustainable, and more sustainable ways. more strategic. It’s never been more important for CIOs and CTOs to combine their standard, detail-oriented approach with the ability to see the big picture and truly understand how software decisions and the broader technology stack can affect performance across the enterprise.

Fortunately, innovations in the eCommerce space are providing IT leaders with the solutions they need to build a technology infrastructure that is resilient, adaptable, and agile enough to meet the changing needs of their organizations. With the right mindset and a commitment to strategic thinking, IT leaders can build the infrastructure necessary to enable their companies to respond to changing market conditions, scale and adapt to changing customer needs, and unlock new efficiencies to maintain full operation. low costs

Technology leaders who build on these trends can keep their companies on an upward trajectory, ensure resilience in the face of challenges, and build the agile technology infrastructure needed to seize emerging opportunities.

Yoav Kutner is the CEO and co-founder of Gold, Inc..