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NEW PRIORITIES FOR A NEW YEAR
In reaction to the macroeconomic environment, companies in the Retail, CPG, Travel, Transportation and Hospitality sectors are planning to invest in IT solutions that will help them address the challenges that have been plaguing them since the beginning of the pandemic.
Background
In December, ISG conducted an executive survey to gauge how companies in the CPG, Retail, Travel, Transportation and Hospitality sectors are planning to invest going forward.
For much of the business world, the work-from-home model enabled companies to keep the lights on throughout the lockdown. As we have written before, the pandemic was a shining moment for IT, when – in response to the urgent need to deploy new tools and manage new processes – it did what was necessary to enable businesses to remain operational.
For many in-person businesses though, IT could only do so much to enable essential workers. It is clear from the fallout of the pandemic that critical parts of businesses that were not sufficiently equipped ahead of time were the least resilient to disruptions and their continued echoes in the market.
What’s Next
Over the last year, high demand and supply shocks led to inflation. And, while rising interest rates have eased inflation, real wage growth is still down relative to 2021.
Historically, Retail, CPG, Travel, Transportation and Hospitality companies have been very public about prioritizing customer engagement and their migration to the cloud. When we asked executives in these sectors about their top priorities given the challenges expected in the coming year, they said they are focusing now on supply chain modernization and employee experience (see Data Watch). It is clear that, regardless of what happens in 2023, executives feel an increasing need to prepare their organizations for instability and retain and train their employees.
DATA WATCH
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