By: Larry Lunetta, VP Portfolio Options Advertising at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise firm.

As customer-centric innovators, we’re continually taking a look at how we are able to higher assist companies attain their targets by leveraging expertise. That’s why listening to from them first-hand is so useful.

This yr, we kicked off our quest for insights with a survey run by Sapio Analysis.

Focusing on 200 worldwide enterprise resolution makers from organizations of 500 workers or extra, its objective was to gauge the C-suite’s understanding of the place and the way a community can ship towards trendy enterprise wants.

And what a set of wants companies are dealing with in 2023—from enabling extra immersive omnichannel buyer journeys to creating bespoke data-led experiences, innovating to safe new income streams, weaving sustainability into operations, and far, rather more.

The survey findings are telling: one in 4 enterprise leaders have solely a practical or restricted understanding of the enterprise community’s true potential.

And this snapshot aligns with a far greater pattern we’re noticing throughout industries—enterprise leaders want skilled companions (each from inside their IT groups and from distributors like HPE Aruba Networking) to assist them leverage their community to provide modern enterprise outcomes, aligned to their particular, strategic digital transformation targets.

Whereas enterprise leaders need to innovate, different key findings reaffirm that the worth of the community to assist them achieve this is just not well-understood:

• Whereas 93% agree their enterprise’ expertise wants have elevated post-pandemic, 73% are involved about their group’s means to maintain up with the most recent necessities.
• 71% acknowledge that expertise and enhanced digitalization are essential to workers doing their jobs, nevertheless solely 61% see the hyperlink between employees productiveness and community developments.
• Half of respondents imagine entry to knowledge is key to unlocking new income streams within the yr forward, however 53% aren’t conscious of how the community may assist drive this innovation.

Excessive ranges of digital transformation and innovation will outline enterprise success in 2023, which 81% of surveyed enterprise leaders acknowledge. However nearly a 3rd anticipate reasonable transformation at finest. Because the community is the proverbial on-ramp to the digital transformation freeway that stretches from edge to cloud, we imagine {that a} extra modern, agile, optimized providing on this entrance will make all of the distinction.

With our outcomes displaying that solely 1 / 4 of respondents are planning to place funds behind their community infrastructure this yr, there may be clearly extra to be performed in demonstrating the community’s worth as a business-driving asset in its personal proper.

A part of that is lies in how IT leaders body their networking discussions—speaking when it comes to enterprise outcomes versus technical specs. Nevertheless it may additionally require a distinct method to networking solely.

Agile Community-as-a-Service (NaaS) can provide enterprise leaders the pliability and resilience to battle by way of the prevailing headwinds confronted throughout industries—from funds and useful resource constraints, to the necessity to match community capability to the ever altering enterprise wants. Whereas these leaders can’t be anticipated to have all of the solutions round networking, working with their IT groups to know how NaaS may help them meet their enterprise targets is the appropriate first step. With the proper NaaS technique (from acquisition to deployment and administration) that matches their distinctive necessities, companies can then fast-track a profitable digital transformation.

Wish to study extra? Try our infographic.