India, Oct. 2 -- As we arrive at the final three months of 2020 and prepare for a fundamentally changed economy and society in 2021 after the shockwave of a pandemic and related shutdowns, it's helpful to assess just what happened in IT departments over the last nine months.

An annual survey of CIOs and IT leaders conducted by the Harvey Nash Group and KPMG provides some real perspective on the whirlwind that has been our year so far. A total of 4,219 IT executives responded to the survey. One gigantic takeaway is this: Technology played a key role for organizations as they sought to operate amid wildly unfamiliar conditions.

That started at the beginning of the pandemic and shutdowns as early as March as IT organizations pulled a lot o...