EU IT Departments More Advanced Than Global Competitors
EU IT Departments More Advanced Than Global Competitors
IT more advanced at supporting business objectives in Europe than the US
CA today unveils the findings of a global CIO study which shows that European IT departments are significantly ahead of their US counterparts when it comes to providing IT services that directly benefit the business.
Europe outscores the US in virtually every measurement of IT effectiveness, particularly when it comes to improving IT processes (51% Europe; 33% US), improving services to end users (55% Europe; 44% US), developing a proactive IT organisation (42% Europe; 27% US), and making IT transparent and accountable to the business (49% Europe; 31% US).
The survey consisted of 300 CIOs in large organisations, broken down across Europe (100), Asia Pacific (100) and the US (100).
Colin Bannister, head of technical services, UK and Ireland Area at CA,
said: "These findings certainly back up my own experience when working with customers across the UK, Ireland and the US. When you consider the survey shows that only a third (31%) of US IT departments are effectively managing the complexity of their IT environments compared to over half in Europe (53%), it certainly makes it easier for European CIOs to take the next step to align IT with business goals."
"The study also highlights that ITIL adoption is lower in the US than Europe and I think this is a key reason why Europe appears more advanced in terms of aligning IT and business processes. The climate is much more mature in Europe in terms of applying process and procedure at an IT level, but importantly, a lot of the customers we speak to are now looking to take this idea to align with business services, and this is where the real value can be achieved."
Bannister continues: "IT and business alignment is a key priority, no surprise there, but what is interesting is how European businesses are trying to achieve alignment. In the UK and Ireland we're seeing much greater assessment of IT change on business output, using process fundamentals. For instance, businesses are starting to relate a server failure, not just to an availability metric, but to whether a customer gets their order delivered. The important thing for the IT industry is to remember that these discussions are at a process level, not a product level."
Of those companies that have been successful in achieving this, standardising on policies and procedures is the highest contributing factor in Europe (67%). This is followed by adopting a best practice framework like ITIL (53%), and finally using one vendor for integrated solutions (30%).
There are some significant discrepancies in what respondents felt were the main obstacles to align IT based on business priorities. A skill shortage was cited as the main barrier by 63% of US respondents but only 40% in Europe. A lack of funding and the level of difficulty involved were the most common barriers in Europe, with 42% of organisations citing each. However it seems that the Europeans are significantly ahead of the US when it comes to defining business goals; 41% of US respondents felt this was a key barrier opposed to just 20% in Europe.
"As IT becomes an increasingly predominant factor in the top and bottom-line performance of the business, CIOs will have to focus more and more on the investment of their finite resources. This focus will continue to drive the adoption of best practices for IT resource allocation-as well as the integrated Business Service Management technologies that support those best practices," said Bannister.
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