The quest to improve IT support and the Information Technology segment demands a change. In practice, companies must change how they view its purpose.

Moreover, the Brazilian IT market keeps expanding. Back in 2022, IDC Brazil projected an 8.2% increase in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) market. The IT segment alone would advance more than 10%. That investment cycle has not stopped since. In practice, the money goes to productivity, cost control and customer experience. In addition, it funds new digital products, applied AI, and technical talent retention.

In practice, IDC Brazil’s country manager, Denis Arcieri, already saw good prospects for the sector. His reading still holds for IT services and software. After all, the highlight was a change of perspective about the area. “The need to generate more business is inviting companies to rethink their priorities and, consequently, increasing the demand for IT solutions,” he analyzes.

Therefore, it is worth looking at this scenario closely. Organizations keep increasing their investments in the area. However, the real challenge is making the IT operation effective. In short, it must serve multiple users without burdening the company. Is there a standard recipe to achieve this result?

IT is a strategic area

According to Walter Troncoso, CEO of Inove Solutions, the first step belongs to companies. In short, they must understand that IT is much more than an expense or a cost. The emergency shift to remote work during the pandemic was a milestone. Today, hybrid work is simply routine. However, a mistaken mindset about the segment still persists. In practice, many companies do not see it as strategic.

“Many companies have always seen IT as an expense, because it does not produce direct profit as sales does. Often, when the business needs to cut expenses, the adjustments end up hitting IT,” explains Troncoso. “Even when cutting costs is necessary, it can be done intelligently, in a way that allows growth,” he highlights.

From expense to investment

Likewise, for Troncoso, the initial change must start with company culture. After all, it is hard to imagine reference organizations without solid IT support. In practice, that means service for multiple users, performance optimization, and security. Moreover, it now includes a hybrid workforce and cloud-managed devices.

“IT is already an essential pillar of any business. However, there will be a major market shift in the next 5 or 10 years. The organizations that understand this will be able to move forward. Those who lead during this period of digital transformation will stay ahead. Once that happens, I am not sure there will be a way back,” he says.

As a result, global IT budgets returned to strong growth after the pandemic. In 2021, spending grew 8.6% over 2020, according to a Gartner survey from that year. However, allocating more resources does not improve corporate daily life on its own. It also does not change the way customers see the organization. Therefore, the other departments need to count on solid IT support.

The role of IT

Meanwhile, one central role of IT is creating good user experiences. Every effort a company makes must be effective for the people who use it. In practice, that applies to internal users (employees) and to external ones (customers). Moreover, modern SLAs measure user experience, not just response time. Mistakes here are hard to measure and they block new partnerships.

“Failing on user experience directly affects several aspects, including brand image, the perception of potential customers, and the relationship people have with the products. All of this accumulates negatively and weighs on companies. It is not even possible to measure how many deals were lost because of it,” reveals Troncoso.

In short, this care matters even more with digital transformation. After all, it increases the reach of organizations and expands the volume of consumer relationships. For example, think of a company that sold only in person and moved to e-commerce. Its target audience is no longer one neighborhood. In practice, it now reaches the limit of its delivery capacity.

According to Troncoso, IT support for customer service and other improvements is “adjustable”. Meanwhile, the main concern is an IT architecture that respects the organization’s culture. Today, that foundation includes observability, with correlated logs, metrics, and traces. “IT architecture is like the foundation of a house. If it is well built, I will have the flexibility to build more. The same logic applies here,” he reasons.

After all, it is important for companies to move with this mindset.

Questions that IT support answers together with the business

– Are we adopting a new system? It must be validated before implementation.

– Are we acquiring a company? The systems and tools need to adapt to this model.

– Are we going to grow? What sustains an adequate structure within this logic?

“When the whole organization moves on these foundations, it becomes simpler to find solutions. In short, the area turns from a cost center into a department that effectively delivers IT support for the entire organization, as expected in a digital world,” he states.

In other words, increasing the budget is not enough on its own. Today, ticket triage and classification already run with AI support. Likewise, AI agents resolve a large share of level 1 demands. Next, self-service with an assisted knowledge base shortens the human queue. As a result, the technical team is left with the work that requires judgment.

In practice, IT support does not depend only on the volume of resources allocated to the area. Moreover, it depends on how this department is understood and planned for the future. Therefore, more than money, IT needs to be truly understood as strategic.