News
Global Survey: IT Departments making companies more efficient, yet not driving business growth
December 2012 by Juniper Networks and the Economist Intelligence Unit
Juniper Networks and the Economist Intelligence Unit released findings from a recent
global survey, which revealed that over half of businesses surveyed primarily rely on IT
departments to increase efficiency of their operations. But IT is largely falling short of
expectations to drive business growth in new areas. The survey of 474 respondents spanned
Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the United States. Fifty-one percent of respondents are C-level
and board members and the remaining are senior executives and managers.
The survey showed, that of all respondents, the highest-performing companies – those who
report their financial performance is stronger than their industry peers – identify a different role
for IT in key areas of their business. Compared to their peers,
– 20 percent more of the high-performing companies say technology played a very strong
role in their organization’s financial performance.
– 11 percent more of the high-performing companies strongly agree that the IT function
can support business growth by identifying new market opportunities.
– Eight percent more of the high-performing companies say the IT function is very closely
involved in helping develop new products and services.
Today, businesses are rushing to keep up with exponential data growth and meet fast-changing
market needs for digital services. Financial institutions are delivering mobile banking
applications while gaming companies are rebuilding their game catalogues as online services. As
companies rush to deliver these new services, IT has an opportunity to play a role advancing
these new business initiatives.
While most IT departments are not yet widely seen driving business growth, the companies
surveyed predict the role of IT will begin shifting from tools of efficiency to engines of growth.
Sixty percent of respondents report IT will be very closely or somewhat closely involved in
helping to develop new products or services for the company over the next three years.
Importantly, survey respondents predicted the top technology trend that would impact the
competitiveness of their business was collaboration and information sharing through networks.
Additional Key Findings Include: IT Perceptions and Expectations
– When asked about the IT functions’ main strengths, the top response (42 percent) was “efficient execution of general business processes.”
– Today, one in five (20 percent) respondents report that IT is only somewhat prepared or very unprepared to contribute to improved business growth.
– Very few business respondents successfully collaborate with IT on strategic business imperatives such as identifying new market opportunities (nine percent), identifying new innovations (six percent) or developing a competitive strategy (five percent).
Disruptive Technologies
– Global respondents predict the top technology investments over the next three years will be business information analysis (33 percent), followed by business process management (31 percent), cloud computing/virtualization (29 percent) and mobile devices (26 percent).
– Respondents report the top technology trends influencing the competitiveness of their organization over the next three years include collaboration and information sharing through networks (31 percent), the widespread availability of mobile devices (31 percent), and the ubiquitous nature of connected devices and integrated systems (27 percent).
About the Survey
Juniper Networks commissioned the Economist Intelligence Unit to survey 474 IT and business executives from the Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the United States in order to understand how the role of IT in business is changing to address the challenges and opportunities of exponential scale.
