A misalignment between business and IT carries significant ramifications for the performance, competitiveness and growth prospects of organisations.
The reduced likelihood of innovation across all departments (39%), reduced staff productivity (36%) and loss of customers to more agile competitors (33%) are cited by IT decision makers as the implications of the gap.
This is according to research from VMware which also reveals that almost two thirds (65%) of IT decision-makers in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) believe an average time lapse of five months exists between what the business wants and when IT can deliver it.
As companies grapple with the new era of IT, this gap adds to the growing pressure IT is under. The research by Vanson Bourne, commissioned by VMware, finds that 69% of IT decision makers feel their department is under pressure from the CEO, CTO or board to modernise IT in the next 12 months.
Beyond the on-going challenge of reducing the cost of IT (50%), these departments specifically have been tasked with increasing the mobility of the workforce (43%) and moving more infrastructure to the cloud (40%).
“A lag of almost half a year between what the business expects of IT and what it can deliver is huge. We cannot underplay the pressure IT departments face in this new mobile cloud era, as they balance a need to maximise value
from existing systems alongside the necessity to deploy new technologies,” says Wayne Biehn, regional manager Africa: West, East, Central, South (WECA) Africa.
“We’re hearing time and again that businesses see IT as a driver of innovation; it has to be part of future not part of the furniture. Organisations of all sizes need an IT infrastructure that can scale up and down with business demand, increase automation to reduce management burden and help improve productivity and support innovation. Investment needs to shift to IT that can genuinely impact the business and reduce the gap.”
The pressure surrounding IT delivery is a challenge felt by many enterprises. The research found that one in two (55%) of IT decision makers recognise that smaller competitors can more rapidly implement modern IT and therefore react quicker to market changes. As a result, nearly three quarters (73%) of these respondents felt either concerned or threatened by smaller businesses.
Commenting on the findings, Rob Harborn, senior economist at CEBR, says: “As economies move from recovery mode into a period of growth and optimism, the pace of business is faster than ever. With this new wave of IT innovation taking place right before us, organisations are in a race to find better and quicker ways to align business expectations with IT delivery.
“There is a demonstrable impact on organisational performance for those that can closely align the two. Those that cannot will be forever hampered in their efforts to maximise productivity as the growth agenda returns.”
In addition to further investment (61%) and becoming closer aligned with business objectives (58%), 57% of IT decision makers identified the need to recruit more skilled talent as being key to reducing the gap.
Also cited were the increased prominence of the CIO on the board (30%) and the creation of a Digital Officer role (30%), demonstrating the need to have the right people in place to ensure IT fully supports organisations as they look to increase performance, competitiveness and growth potential.
