Interview: Alyssa Blackburn, AvePoint

What is the major potential tech pain point that will face all organisations large and small in 2023?

Today, many organisations’ lack of information governance causes technical problems, and this will persist through 2023 as well. This might include over-retention of data and information, lack of system oversight and management, or lack of information governance structures and programs in place. Data growth continues to explode, and organisations need to actively invest in management and protection tools to protect their most valuable assets and ensure business continuity.

What’s on your tech wish list from government, innovators and the wider industry in 2023?

Our workplace environments have transformed at a rapid pace, particularly in the last few years, and hybrid working is now a part of every business. Consequently, the Privacy Act has become outdated to a point where simply revising it will not be enough to ensure it is effective in helping combat cybercrime. We need a complete overhaul of the Privacy Act and a new regulatory framework that addresses the nature of the modern workplace and modern cyber threats.

These changes should include, but not be limited to, penalties that act as genuine deterrents for businesses that are not prioritising effective data protection. Extensive work is already underway across the industry, which explores what regulations could make our businesses and consumers better protected, so our government would not necessarily need to start from scratch.

Both the government and our industry leaders have a real opportunity, while the topics of cybersecurity, privacy and data protection are top of mind for every Australian, to show leadership and enable a preventative approach to personal information protection in an increasingly complex environment.

Which new technology will reach critical mass and become dominant in 2023?

The pandemic saw the rise of collaboration platforms as everyone rushed to allow people to continue working together, while located remotely. I think what we’ll see is more investment in these areas, but particularly around advanced automation (like machine learning, for example) to reduce manual and complex processes to achieve more efficiency. Organisations have invested heavily in these collaboration tools, and I believe we’ll see this investment continue. This will be to support ‘the new normal’ of hybrid workplaces where organisations need to meet their employee desire for more flexibility while also securing their information assets.

Will IT continue to drive organisational efficiency in a hybrid work world and who should lead the charge? (CEOs, CIOs, CTOs etc)?

We need to see leadership at every level for organisational efficiency initiatives to be successful. That said, it’s always going to have a better outcome when it’s led from the top. CEOs, in particular, are more responsible for information and data management challenges than ever before. While this used to sit in the lap of a CIO/CTO, no one wants to be in the CEO seat when a significant data breach occurs. Organisational efficiency should be a top priority, but more importantly, so should the better delivery of goods, services or experiences to consumers or constituents. Organisations should be focused on value both for products or services provided, but also value in terms of how personal information and data is protected and secured in an increasingly complex environment where threats are coming from all angles.

With nearly 20 years of experience in the information management industry, Alyssa has worked with both public and private sector organisations globally to deliver guidance for information management success in the digital age. She is also responsible for AvePoint’s information management product set.