20 years of digital transformation, as seen by an IT expert

• Since 2004, the IT landscape has changed dramatically for tech professionals.
• We spoke to Csaba Jaromi, director of solutions consulting at the IT management solutions company GoTo.
• Jaromi believes IT service management solutions will be critical for all businesses in the near future.

Csaba Jaromi never thought he'd stay with the same company for over 18 years. But GoTo has managed to change with the times, constantly innovating and moving forward, keeping Jaromi challenged enough to stick around. 

It is incredible to think about how much the IT landscape has changed since 2004, when Jaromi, now GoTo's director of solutions, started at the software firm.

The year GoTo launched, Mark Zuckerberg was launching Facebook at Harvard, YouTube was still a year away from its debut, and it would be four more years before Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. Back then, the average person would hear the term "remote support" and probably think it meant getting help for their TV controller. The concept of getting help from afar was still very new, but today, GoTo is a leader in the field of remote support and continues to innovate.

"A lot of the digital world that we experience now was nowhere to be found," Jaromi said. GoTo was a hive of traditional desks and computer workstations. Jaromi said no one then dreamt that doctors would be doing telemedicine or accountants would be doing bookkeeping in the cloud. Jaromi related a story from a few years ago of a yoga instructor who reached out to him about digitizing her classes, which has now become a regular online practice.

GoTo now finds itself in a solid position to help companies weather another potential problem: recession.

Economic headwinds suggest that a global recession might be on the way

Global economic indicators continue to point towards a slowdown, and some countries are already mired in recession. The fear is that larger markets like the USA and Brazil might be next. Software solutions that tackle myriad problems can be an efficient approach for businesses that fear an economic downturn. 

Instead of hiring several IT people or buying a patchwork of products, GoTo Resolve and Rescue allow "companies to do more with existing resources and cover higher value engagements in the technical support and the remote engagement world," Jaromi said. Efficiency translates into saving money, which is vital in a softer economic climate. 

The vendor consolidation, which GoTo Resolve provides, allows small-to-medium-sized businesses to take care of IT ticketing, proactive and reactive remote support needs, and eventually, even areas like asset management from one single product and platform. "It actually allows your existing people, because of its remote connection nature, to be able to support more without ever having to get up from their chairs," Jaromi said. Jaromi said he has seen teams increase their productivity between 20% to 50% by letting GoTo Resolve's efficiencies work for them. 

GoTo Resolve is also an invaluable asset to managed service providers who handle the IT needs of many SMBs worldwide. For MSPs, the efficiencies and value can be even more pronounced because they often base their revenue on how many endpoints they can ultimately service. Rescue and GoTo Resolve can bump up the endpoints a single IT person can service from 150-200 to upwards of 300, to even as many as 500.

For SMBs, GoTo Resolve can often be their main IT presence. The person in charge of IT, Jaromi said, usually wears many hats and needs to keep the ship afloat from both a security and business operations perspective, and "often, they are doing it alone."

SMBs, however, aren't the only entities that feel the pinch in a downturn. So do sprawling Fortune 500 companies whose ecosystems are pinched by inflation, regulation, and unpredictable supply chains. For the largest enterprises, Rescue offers super-sized savings by allowing automated efficiencies.

"If you deliver these efficiencies in a digitized environment, it allows you to do more troubleshooting and proactive management with these assets in a very efficient manner," Jaromi said.

How to keep compliance on the level

One issue that is constantly changing is regulatory compliance; whether that is HIPAA in the USA or GDPR in Europe, the regulatory landscape is continuously shifting. But Rescue and GoTo Resolve have constantly stayed a step ahead, building in the most secure layers possible.

Rescue, for instance, is constructed around privacy by keeping personally identifiable information out of the equation.

"Rescue can be used in such a way that it does not process any PII whatsoever," Jaromi said. IT issues can be solved without involving names, email addresses, and social security numbers. Still, Rescue offers enough flexibility that PII can be used at the client level based on needs and discretion.

"We provide functionalities where our customers can process and own PII completely at their endpoints. Then we can deliver a compliance service without ever having to touch that," Jaromi said, adding that for businesses like financial services, educational services, and healthcare, the security of Rescue and GoTo Resolve provides options and implementation flexibility but in a manner that complies with many different legislative nuances.

Looking to the future

Over his 18 years at GoTo, Jaromi has seen the company endure significant changes, from being an upstart innovator to an established industry leader. Meanwhile, GoTo itself has weathered changes in compliance, regulation, and constantly changing technology. "The technology horizon and the scale of operations has jumped naturally every two or three years," Jaromi said. Now, as part of the leadership team in Europe, he enjoys looking towards the future, a future that includes continually enhanced and innovative ITSM solutions from Rescue and Resolve. GoTo will continue to keep pace by increasing the use of automation, delivering more with less, mitigating risks, and solving problems before they arise. Proactive approaches and automation will increase support and reach.

"What keeps me interested now is being able to see how a private company can navigate a potential recession in the SaaS sector, and how can we make sure that we actually provide the solutions that enable cost savings and security for our customers?" Jaromi said. "That's the current wave."

Learn more about GoTo's simple, secure IT support tools. 

This article was created by Insider Studios with GoTo.