Five reasons why CIOs need to prepare for Brexit and modernise IT

Businesses need to consider potential scenarios and act accordingly.

Now is the time for UK businesses to think about the different types of scenarios and to start planning appropriately for their businesses. We all hope for a well-structured transition period, however those businesses who have and are already planning for different outcomes will be in a much better position to deal with whatever they are presented with.

However, in a recent Avanade research study, “IT Leaders Have 500 Days to Get Tech in Shape“, it is indicating that almost half of IT leaders do not have a specific plan for Brexit.

Brexit is bringing opportunities but will more than likely create new issues and make current ones more intense.(68% of IT leaders are thinking it could bring a competitive advantage)

  1. Business restructuring and relocation

9,000 roles in Global banks are already being transferred from the UK to states remaining in the EU. It is realistic to see this action speeding up and businesses will need to think about how this change in form has to be dealt with by technologies including potential data migration and load effects.

  1. Where to locate support organisations

Should support be provided through shared services organisations outside the UK or should you support Europe from UK based shared service centres, and what are the implications? The free passage of people, goods and equipment may no longer be seamless between the UK and EU…a physical presence in way of satellite offices may be needed in your key trading locations, with the associated IT and collaboration infrastructure that entails. 71% of senior IT executives have also started to investigate the disruption Brexit may have to their IT supply chain.

  1. A changing talent landscape

The uncertainty around future immigration restrictions for IT professionals both from inside the EU and beyond will make talent wars more vicious; compensating for that through increased in-house skills building or outsourcing of certain systems may well be a consequence. 66% of IT leaders are already concerned about the impact of Brexit on the availability of talent.

  1. Sterling depreciation driving a need for cost optimisation

Sterling’s loss of value has meant that imports, including IT Services, have increased, this is another squeeze on already constrained CIO budgets.  In fact, 76% of senior IT decision makers say the lower value of the pound will force them to rationalise costs.

  1. A potentially new regulatory environment

If the tax and regulatory administration change, which at this present time are quite reasonably consistent across Europe, what will be the impact on IT applications and trans-national solutions? We can already see the EU making moves to govern London activity in Euro-denominated trading; there could well be considerations for your systems operating within a new (or hybrid) set of regulatory controls.

Similarly, by departing from the EU could result in a loosening of regulation; either way, how will business systems cope with a potential backlog of regulatory related updates?

71% of IT leaders are saying by the changing regulatory environment it will create an enormous amount of work.

Will the UK continue to be a safe-haven or 3rd country for personal data on EU citizens? What are the impacts of Data Residency rules, specifically, will you need to reconsider your cloud plans, particularly in heavily regulated industries?

What will happen if the UK chooses to recognise the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in English law, a policy fiercely criticised previously by our current Prime Minister?

Will your business choose to adhere to GDPR even if the UK chooses not to comply, to enable pan European aggregation, and what will the implications be? Again these aspects of future trade will impact the systems that underpin business activities.

Will the UK change TUPE legislation (which is currently an extension to the Acquired Rights Directive (ARD)) or possibly introduce something else and what will be the implications for IT resourcing?

In April 2017, cloud service experts entrustIT acquired a majority stake in TIVA IT Solutions.

As an ISO 27001 and 9001 certified company – the globally recognised industry standards of data security and quality management – entrustIT understand the importance of keeping customer data safe and providing an unparalled service.

Given all that businesses have to think about, entrustIT have services in place for your business ready to be GDPR compliant, give us a call to so we can discuss this with you and help take away the headache of making sure you are compliant, we can do this for you quickly and easily

Click here for further information:- http://www.entrustit.co.uk/essentialgdprwhitepaper/