{"id":84131,"date":"2025-04-17T14:57:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T14:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/degreed.com\/experience\/experience\/?p=84131"},"modified":"2025-05-01T18:22:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:22:36","slug":"how-it-leaders-in-2025-can-build-for-agility-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/degreed.com\/experience\/blog\/how-it-leaders-in-2025-can-build-for-agility-first\/","title":{"rendered":"How IT Leaders in 2025 Can Build for Agility First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Enterprise IT leaders are not only managing infrastructure but also managing change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether your company is deploying AI more responsibly, driving automation, or consolidating sprawling tech stacks, the role of today’s IT leader is as much about strategic, innovative ownership as it is operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expectations rise\u2014and as budgets tighten\u2014every tech decision carries great weight. Increasingly, systems need to integrate and scale with minimal friction and quickly deliver measurable outcomes. Ideally, every investment aligns with business goals, not just departmental KPIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When vendors come to the table, you\u2019re most likely asking, \u201cWill this solution accelerate business agility? Can it integrate deeply without disruption? Will it help deliver faster, measurable ROI? Will it be a burden to maintain?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the right questions. Business agility is achievable with systems that reduce friction, personalize growth, and scale easily across regions, functions, and roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Your tech should power people, not just processes.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Success in this moment requires workforce transformation\u2014and an engine that can drive big change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s innovative IT leaders look for that engine to be powered by automations that free up time for teams to focus on high-impact work. Degreed Automations<\/a> robustly automates admin tasks, configuring rules-based workflows to help your business deliver training, updates, and nudges at key employee moments without IT having to write a line of code. Onboarding? Automated. Compliance reminders? Personalized. Sales enablement nudges? Orchestrated from one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is another catalyst for workforce transformation. Degreed Maestro<\/a>, our AI purpose-built for learning, accelerates workforce transformation and makes learning workflows faster and more effective at lower costs. By learning from context, role, and historical data, Maestro helps employees engage with what matters to them personally, faster. It\u2019s designed to reduce time and money wasted on irrelevant content, boost platform use, and improve retention of learning\u2014so IT teams can rest assured that tech investment is adopted across the enterprise and enabling desired outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interoperability isn\u2019t a feature. It\u2019s a requirement.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Under pressure to consolidate tech stacks and reduce redundancy, forward-thinking IT leaders seek platforms that play nicely across the ecosystem. That\u2019s why Degreed is built with an open architecture for open integration<\/strong>\u2014with deep, bidirectional connectivity to SAP, Workday, and more than 80 content providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Degreed interoperability isn\u2019t just a technical edge\u2014it\u2019s a strategic one. Our deep integrations reduce implementation risk, minimize overhead, and preserve data fidelity across systems. When data flows both ways, insights get sharper\u2014and decisions get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For organizations running global operations with complex org charts, this level of interoperability is critical. It allows IT to maintain flexibility while still delivering a consistent, reliable experience across departments and geographies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AstraZeneca went from 75 HR tools to only eight<\/a> after implementing Degreed\u2014and at the same time achieved a 20% reduction in cost per learner and a 600% increase in available learning content\u200b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scale globally without sacrifice.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Scalability isn\u2019t just about volume. It\u2019s about flexibility. IT leaders need platforms that can flex across regions, functions, and business units, and adapt to changing business needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Degreed supports personalized development at enterprise scale, automatically delivering tailored Pathways and AI-powered tutoring (available with Degreed Maestro) to all employees based on their roles, skills, and preferences. This adaptability supports not only learning engagement but also strategic outcomes like internal mobility and digital readiness. It also helps improve organizational agility by efficiently growing strategic skills the workforce needs to accomplish strategic business goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Degreed, Colgate-Palmolive upskilled more than 14,000 employees in 200 countries<\/a> in data and analytics\u2014boosting the company\u2019s global competitive position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look for three key things from vendors in 2025.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When IT teams assess new technology partners, three themes consistently emerge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n