In Isaac Sacolick’s recent CIO Magazine article, “7 Ways to Kill IT’s Value to the Business,” Sacolick sheds light on some key issues IT personnel are facing, from the perspective of leaders across the IT space. To read the full article, click here.
Opkey’s CEO, Pankaj Goel, shared his insights in the article, noting that “the strongest transformations succeed when IT shifts from ‘deploying technology’ to building a dynamic, optimized transformation that evolves with the business.” In pursuit of IT excellence, test automation and continuous assurance are the missing backbone of durable business value.
The article rightly criticizes big-bang deployments and one-off AI pilots. After all, these methods rarely scale well. It’s important to “start small and scale without disruption,” as Raj Balasundaram, also quoted in the article, mentioned.
To scale without disruption, every step of the implementation journey must be backed by reusable test assets, quality gates, and real adoption metrics. Without an automation layer that evolves with each MVP, organizations just ship change faster while multiplying risk.
CIOs are warned against “flashy pilots” that promise instant ROI. These pilots often stall because there is no data governance, cost control, or effective deployment plan. Opkey’s perspective is that every AI or SaaS project should include a production grade testing strategy from day one: test data design, regression suites, security and compliance checks, and clear criteria for promotion to scale.
Sacolick also highlights a common occurrence: IT achieves on-time delivery, but end users abandon the solution, as post-go-live issues get in the way of real-world use. Opkey sees autonomous discovery, configuration, and testing as a continuous feedback loop with business users; user journeys, edge cases, and change requests need to be codified into automated tests that evolve with the process and design of your tech stack.
Sacolick also calls out the danger of workers adopting AI tools on their own, creating unmanaged risk. In the face of too much rigidity, well-meaning workers tend to flout restrictions in the name of efficiency.
The article notes that many IT teams “don’t plan beyond implementation,” turning capable systems into shelfware and accumulating technical debt.
The answer to many of these problems is clear as day: enterprises that embed automation into their operating model are the ones that turn IT from a cumbersome liability to a strategic asset.
