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ControlCircle survey of 250 IT leaders shows CIOs struggle to prioritise strategic projects and deliver consistent quality of service
April 2014 by ControlCircle
ControlCircle released its findings from a major research project commissioned with Vanson Bourne, independent market researcher. According to research among 250 UK CIOs and IT leaders, three out of four IT departments are limited in their ability to align objectives with the business strategy. This is despite 79% believing that IT leaders should be strategic as well as technical.
The ‘IT Growth and Transformation’ survey explores challenges within the IT department, IT budgets and alignment within the business, and the challenges of delivering a service to business in an IT environment. 40% of the organisations interviewed agree that their environments are becoming increasingly complex. Looking forward five years, around half believe this will simplify, though still 30% believe the complexity will become more acute.
The research reveals the level to which current IT systems are hindering overall growth and progression within organisations, with 78% claiming that they are hindered by legacy infrastructure.
56% of respondents agree that their IT department struggles to meet the volume of business cases being driven from within the business. Additionally, 53% respondents claim that the proliferation of multiple infrastructures and applications, along with their associated monitoring tools, is having an adverse impact on service levels and availability.
When questioned about performance throughout the department, from delivering a consistent quality of service to driving efficiencies, in all but one level, less than a quarter of large organisations could report excellence. For the most part, smaller organisations reported better performance results, although service excellence and the ability to effect budget reductions still only accounted for 59% and 52%, respectively.
On average, less than half of IT budgets are being spent on business growth and transformation projects combined, whilst over half is spent on IT operations, or the day to day running of the business.
“With so much effort going into ‘keeping the lights on’, and almost all businesses experiencing regular availability issues, it is hardly surprising that IT leaders are often unable to fulfill their ambitions,” said Carmen Carey, MD at ControlCircle. “This report shows that IT departments are facing a range of challenges that are hindering them from delivering consistent quality of service and innovation.”
Summary findings from the ‘IT Growth and Transformation’ report:
– 79% believe IT leaders should be strategically led, and 56% believe that IT leaders are struggling to meet the volume of business cases being driven from within the organisation.
– Three quarters of respondents report that the lack of IT resources - budget and skilled people - and legacy infrastructure are preventing the IT department from aligning with business strategy. 78% of IT departments are hindered by legacy infrastructure.
– 24% of IT budget is used to grow the average business. 55% of the budget is spent running the business, and the remaining 21% on innovation.
– 43% of IT project budgets are drawn from other departments.
– 7/10 leaders believe they could improve services using innovation. 84% of IT departments cite innovation and new technology as best ways to improve efficiency.
– Security (65%), cloud (36%), and compliance (34%) are the top 3 challenges IT leaders face today. Looking to the future these challenges will evolve to security (56%), cloud (46%) and mobility (41%).
– Nearly half of surveyed IT departments experience weekly availability issues, 21% hourly or daily, and 48% hourly, daily or weekly.
– Respondents reported their IT environments include a variety of models: 82% on premises; 67% managed service; 64% private cloud.
– The top three drivers within the organisation are: the use of technology to innovate or streamline business processes (59%), lower operating costs (56%) and improving workforce productivity (50%).
The in-depth research was conducted with 250 senior IT decision-makers working in UK organisations that employ 3rd party and managed service providers and a minimum of 250 staff. The IT leaders interviewed were taken from the manufacturing, technology, financial services, professional services, healthcare, telecoms and utilities industries.
“These results highlight that the ability of the IT organisation to align its strategy with that of the business is currently limited. Larger enterprises are more vulnerable to issues impacting service levels than smaller organisations, due to the amount of legacy systems they are dealing with,” said Carmen. “With enterprises also more focused on the reduction of Capex, they need to identify specific areas for discrete IT projects that use innovative commercials and tools to help them achieve their strategic goals.”
