The business uncertainty of recent years will continue in 2023, making unpredictability the one thing all enterprises can rely on. By understanding the impact of the following four key trends, you can be better positioned to overcome the risks of continued disruption.
1. Talent remains tight
The workforce shortage will continue in 2023, despite the risk of recession, thanks to continued low unemployment. As a result, employers need to continue adapting their business to make it easier to attract and retain talent.
One way employers can stand out is by offering remote or hybrid work arrangements. With some employers eager to return to 100% in-office work, businesses that offer remote or hybrid work can use this valuable incentive to lure away staff who would rather work from home. Not only does this help attract talent, but it can help retain them: Employees who don't work from their preferred location report lower engagement, higher burnout rates and a greater desire to quit.
To facilitate a remote or hybrid workplace, enterprises must give employees the tools and technology required to work effectively. Providing employees with powerful mobile devices, 5G connectivity and collaboration solutions like unified communications helps them stay connected with customers and colleagues from the location they choose.
2. Strengthening a weak supply chain
Thanks to the last few years, enterprises are now well-versed in managing the global supply chain challenges that can impact pricing, delivery and the consumer experience. In 2023, enterprises can take what they've learned to create the supply chain resilience required to help reduce their overall risk.
By closely examining each link of their supply chain, enterprises can identify opportunities to strengthen operations by finding alternative or additional vendors, especially for aspects of the supply chain that over-rely on a single country.
In addition, enterprises can leverage data to gain enhanced, near real-time visibility into all aspects of their supply chain, including transportation, manufacturing and logistics. By incorporating technology like 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), multi-access edge computing (MEC) and artificial intelligence (AI), enterprises can gain the end-to-end visibility required to improve forecasts and identify issues before they become major disruptions.
3. Leveraging automation to drive innovation
In order to improve product delivery, efficiency and revenue, enterprises will explore automation with renewed urgency in 2023. This will lead to more organizations exploring an Industry 4.0 approach that connects data across machines, people and devices to intelligent platforms.
By integrating near real-time intelligence from manufacturing facilities, warehouses, business departments and customer inputs, enterprises can use automation to reduce errors and increase their operational speed. In addition, automation helps put the right data in front of business users faster, so they can make data-driven decisions about demand drivers, customer sentiment changes or unexpected moves by competitors.
Enterprises need to connect their siloed data sources so automated processes can make the most out of their business data. 5G, network-as-a-service, MEC and more all have a critical role to play in powering the platforms that turn data into insights and action.
4. Combating ransomware remains a top priority
One of the most significant risks to any enterprise's business isn't a competitor, but ransomware. All it takes is for one employee to click one fraudulent link to execute ransomware that can take a business offline for hours or days.
And it's only getting worse: According to Verizon's 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), ransomware accounted for 25% of breaches last year, which is a 13% year-over-year increase. Because nearly 4 out of 5 breaches are attributable to organized crime syndicates focused on financial gain, cyber criminals are increasingly targeting enterprises with deep pockets that can't afford to have data and devices locked up in an attack. And with the total cost of a breach approximately seven times higher than the extortion request, even an unsuccessful attack is costly.
In 2023, enterprises will need to harden their security posture, especially in the wake of employees and the network becoming even more distributed. In addition to using technology to protect systems against ransomware attacks, enterprises can focus on incident response planning (including table top exercises and simulations) and training employees to identify and avoid ransomware attacks.
2023 is the Year of the Intelligent Enterprise
The more you can incorporate data, intelligence, automation and innovation, the more you can build a smarter, more agile enterprise capable of thriving regardless of the business environment you face. Verizon is here to help organizations digitally transform by delivering what we call Enterprise Intelligence.
Leveraging technology to capture and deliver an end-to-end vision of your organization in near real-time, Verizon's solutions help you adopt AI, machine learning, IoT and more. Power the modern workforce, strengthen your supply chain, incorporate automation, and protect the organization's IT with powerful solutions that help you drive better business outcomes in 2023 and beyond.
Learn more about Enterprise Intelligence.