What Should SMEs Be Preparing for in 2027?

For many organisations, planning for a new year means budgets, targets and business priorities. 

But preparing for 2027 should involve another question. 

Is the way we govern and manage the organisation keeping pace with the way the organisation itself is changing? 

Technology is becoming more embedded in everyday operations. Businesses are increasingly dependent on suppliers and digital services. Employees are adopting AI tools. Customers and procurement teams are asking suppliers to provide greater assurance. Sustainability expectations continue to influence procurement and technology decisions. 

For SMEs, the challenge is not trying to predict every change that might happen next year. 

It is recognising the changes already happening and deciding what they mean for the organisation. 

Start with the business 

Governance should not exist separately from business planning. 

If the organisation intends to grow, enter new markets, win larger customers, introduce new technology or change the way services are delivered, those decisions can create new requirements and risks. 

For example, winning a larger customer might introduce more demanding supplier assurance requirements. 

Introducing AI might create questions around data, intellectual property, accuracy and accountability. 

Moving an important service to a new technology supplier might introduce new dependencies. 

Changing technology procurement could affect cost, security, resilience and environmental impact for several years. 

The starting point should therefore be the organisation’s objectives. 

What are we trying to achieve in 2027? 

What could prevent us from achieving it? 

What will customers expect from us? 

What is changing in the way we operate? 

Governance becomes much more useful when it helps answer those questions. 

Understand what the organisation depends on 

Most organisations rely on a combination of technology, suppliers, information, processes and people. 

Those dependencies are not always obvious until something goes wrong. 

A cloud platform becomes unavailable. 

A critical supplier experiences disruption. 

An important piece of technology reaches end of support. 

A key employee leaves. 

A cyber incident affects access to information. 

An organisation preparing for 2027 should understand which services matter most and what those services depend on. 

That does not mean trying to eliminate every possible risk. 

It means knowing where disruption would matter most, who is responsible and what needs to be in place to respond effectively. 

Operational Resilience is therefore not simply an emergency-planning exercise. 

It is part of understanding how the organisation works. 

Find out where AI is already being used 

AI deserves particular attention because adoption can happen much faster than formal organisational change. 

An organisation might believe it is still considering its AI strategy while employees are already using generative AI tools to draft documents, analyse information, summarise meetings, support research or produce content. 

AI functionality may also be appearing inside software and services the organisation already uses. 

Before deciding what AI Governance should look like, organisations need visibility. 

Which tools are being used? 

For what purposes? 

What information is being entered? 

What outputs are people relying on? 

Which suppliers are using AI within their services? 

What risks have been considered? 

Do employees understand what is and is not acceptable? 

The objective should not be to stop useful innovation. 

It should be to understand AI use well enough to manage it responsibly. 

Look at what customers increasingly expect 

Governance is not only an internal issue. 

For SMEs supplying larger organisations or the public sector, the ability to demonstrate how the business is managed can influence commercial opportunities. 

Customers may want assurance around information security, service management, resilience, sustainability, risk or the use of AI. 

Tender and supplier-assurance processes can require evidence rather than general statements. 

That makes it worth asking: 

What are our customers already asking us to demonstrate? 

What might prospective customers expect? 

Where do we have credible evidence? 

Where are we relying on informal practices that would be difficult to demonstrate? 

Recognised standards can provide useful structure and assurance in these areas. 

But the business objective comes first. 

The goal is not simply to collect certifications. 

It is to build the governance and operational maturity needed to compete for and successfully deliver larger opportunities. 

Review how technology is being managed 

Technology decisions made in 2027 may have consequences for years. 

Before approving new purchases or refresh programmes, organisations should understand what they already have and how effectively it is being used. 

Could suitable equipment remain in service for longer? 

Could existing assets be reassigned? 

Are licences or subscriptions underused? 

Which assets are approaching end of support? 

Are there opportunities to use refurbished technology where appropriate? 

Would replacement reduce operating costs through improved energy efficiency? 

What happens to equipment when the organisation no longer needs it? 

These are financial and operational questions as much as sustainability questions. 

Better IT Asset Management can help organisations make more informed decisions about retention, procurement, utilisation, replacement and end of life. 

It also provides an important foundation for understanding the environmental impact associated with the technology estate. 

Make sustainability part of technology planning 

Sustainable IT should not sit in a separate plan that nobody involved in technology procurement ever sees. 

Environmental impact is created through decisions about what organisations buy, how technology is used, how long assets remain in service and what happens to them afterwards. 

Those decisions also affect cost. 

Extending the useful life of suitable technology can delay replacement expenditure. 

Better utilisation can reduce unnecessary purchasing. 

Refurbished technology may provide a viable lower-cost and lower-carbon option in appropriate circumstances. 

More energy-efficient equipment may reduce operational energy consumption when replacement is genuinely required. 

Environmental information therefore becomes most useful when it sits alongside cost, performance, security, resilience and business need. 

The objective is not to make every technology decision based on carbon. 

It is to make better-informed decisions. 

Check whether governance still works in practice 

Policies, processes and management systems can gradually become disconnected from the organisation they are supposed to support. 

A policy may exist but no longer reflect how people work. 

A risk register may be reviewed but not influence decisions. 

Responsibilities may have changed without documentation being updated. 

New technology may have introduced risks that were never considered when existing controls were established. 

Preparing for 2027 is therefore a useful opportunity to ask whether governance still works in practice. 

Do people understand their responsibilities? 

Are important risks visible? 

Are actions tracked? 

Does management information lead to decisions? 

Do incidents and problems lead to improvement? 

Can the organisation demonstrate what it says it does? 

Good governance should provide clarity and control. 

It should not exist simply because a framework says it should. 

Decide what actually matters 

A review of governance, resilience, AI, technology and sustainability can quickly produce a long list of potential improvements. 

Trying to tackle everything at once is rarely practical. 

Some issues will create greater risk than others. 

Some may affect an important customer or contract. 

Some may create an immediate financial opportunity. 

Some may be longer-term improvements. 

The important thing is to understand the difference. 

Preparing for 2027 is not about predicting everything that might happen next year. 

It is about understanding where your organisation is today, what is changing around it and what deserves attention next. 

Because the organisations best prepared for change are not necessarily the ones with the most policies or the longest plans. 

They are the ones that understand their priorities and act on them. 

If you are reviewing your governance and operational priorities for 2027, talk to KA2.