Opinion article authored by Felipe Sales, Business Manager at KCS iT. Originally published in SAPO TeK.

The technology field is no longer remembered as reactive to problems, and has become part of business strategic planning. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the rise to prominence of Information Technology (IT) executives within organizational structures.

Over the last two decades we've seen CFOs hold a position of prominence over their fellow executives, given the importance of good financial management to a company's health, and also, as the old saying goes, "whoever holds the money, calls the shots."

It used to be common, and structures like this still exist, where the technology area was subordinate to the administrative or financial area. However, in recent years, technology directors have gone from being seen as operational, or just another cost center, to becoming decisive in the strategies of traditional companies. These companies needed to react, even if belatedly, to digitalize and modernize their businesses.

10 years in 1

Beyond all the challenges tied to social distancing, health measures, and the closing of physical points of sale, many companies had to respond in record time to new business needs and deliver, or accelerate, complex technology solutions in order to avoid even greater damage to businesses that were not yet mature in the digital space.

Upgrades to technology infrastructure, laptops, cybersecurity policies, and video-conferencing tools are some examples of what needed to be made available, in a short amount of time, so employees could work from home without companies coming to a complete standstill. For retail companies especially, the most important and most challenging step was entering, or maturing in, e-commerce.

It's said, half-jokingly, that the Covid-19 pandemic, which was not the first and won't be the last, was the greatest catalyst for Digital Transformation on record. Far greater than market demands, competition, or new technologies themselves. I believe we witnessed gains in new solutions, process optimization, and remote work equivalent to about ten years, in under one.

"IT guys"

These achievements were only possible thanks to the work of increasingly prepared, specialized, and well-managed teams.

The natural, though slow, movement to recognize IT as a strategic area, with decision-making power within strategic planning and the prominence needed to keep the business always one step ahead, is essential in the moment we're going through. The IT area, or the Chief Intelligence Officer (CIO), if reactive or stuck in its comfort zone and lacking a customer focus and business mindset, is doomed to fail, and worse, to lead the company into making poor decisions.