IT and business alignment barometer

We surveyed 2,400 IT and business decision makers across the globe to learn what is driving closer collaboration, and the technology imperatives needed to meet business priorities in the year ahead. The study revealed that IT and business have aligned even more closely over the past year to improve operational efficiency, increase productivity, and innovate faster.

Download the latest report to learn:

• How IT and business teams alignment impacts business outcomes.
• The increasing role of automation in powering business priorities.
• What the key tech challenges hindering business outcomes are.
• Why integration tops the IT and business agenda.

The following is an excerpt from our whitepaper. Fill in the form to download the full version.

Introduction

For organizations that want to do more than just survive, IT and business teams must prioritize mutual collaboration to grow and scale innovation.

By finding new ways to align, collaborate, and co-create value, IT and business teams can achieve business priorities quicker. Organizations that fail to do this risk finding themselves in the slow lane and falling behind the competition.

The pace of digitization has undeniably accelerated over the last 12-18 months. As a result, many CIOs and IT leaders are now leading their organizations through the change by solving critical operational issues and driving innovation faster. But for organizations that want to do more than just survive, IT and business teams must prioritize mutual collaboration to grow and scale innovation.

By finding new ways to align, collaborate, and co-create value, IT and business teams can achieve business priorities quicker. Organizations that fail to do this risk finding themselves in the slow lane and falling behind the competition.

This report investigates the current state of business and IT alignment, what is driving closer collaboration, and the technology imperatives needed to meet business priorities in the year ahead.

IT and business teams get closer

As businesses work to obtain their footing in a changing world, most (87%) IT and business leaders feel their alignment has improved over the past year. This is especially true in the financial services (89%) and communications/media/technology (CMT) (92%) sectors. Over two-fifths (43%) believe there has been a “significant” improvement in alignment. This trend is driven by a need for greater productivity (29%), faster innovation (19%), and a desire to enhance business-wide collaboration (16%).

The improved IT and business alignment has resulted in several benefits, including improved collaboration (64%), improved operational efficiency (58%), and better customer experience (54%).

It is notable that in the retail sector, this improved alignment has seen a pronounced uplift in customer experience (65%) at a time when eCommerce has exploded due to the increased use of digital channels during the pandemic.

Because of the rapid changes brought by the pandemic, businesses value agility more than ever. Over three-quarters (78%) of organizations say improving business agility to remain competitive will be very important in the future, versus 68% pre-pandemic.

Automation powers business priorities

With the pace of digital change showing no sign of slowing down, global organizations are being more strategic about their business priorities over the next 12 months. Many of these business priorities rely on automation. Most organizations have implemented, or are working on implementing, automation initiatives.

When it comes to automation initiatives, there may be a risk some business and IT leaders are not on the same page. A majority (74%) of IT leaders believe that automation initiatives are IT-led (i.e., driven by the IT department and the technology available). Only 60% of business leaders believe that automation initiatives are IT-led, leaving 40% saying that initiatives are business-led.

Tech challenges hindering business outcomes

• Integration Challenges. Integration issues continue to impede business success. Business and IT leaders agree that integration challenges prevent them from achieving their top five business priorities.
• Security concerns. With an increasing number of systems, applications, and data sources to integrate, there are understandably growing concerns around data security and governance. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents say concerns have increased, with almost a third (31%) of organizations saying they have “significantly” increased.
• Security impacts innovation. Security can often put a handbrake on innovation at a time when most organizations want to move faster. A strong majority of IT and business leaders (87%) are concerned that security and governance are slowing the pace of innovation.

Integration tops IT and business agenda

Organizations are recognizing integration is critical to business strategy and outcomes. Most (91%) business decision makers understand how integration can enable business teams to carry out tasks faster (e.g., streamline cash-to-order processes) and deliver new services faster (e.g., build new eCommerce platforms).

We’ve seen how integration is viewed as central to business success. But how do organizations get there? Most (89%) IT and business decision makers agree that reusable building blocks like APIs make the whole process of stitching together disparate systems, apps, and data far easier.

IT has become a key player in driving successful business outcomes. But organizations can benefit and scale more if business users can securely self-serve and complete projects on their own. Some 86% of respondents believe that if low- or no code approaches were made available to business users, they could create connected experiences themselves to improve outcomes.

Learn more from our report: “IT and business alignment barometer”

• Introduction
• Executive summary
• Section 1: IT and business teams get closer
• Section 2: Automation powers business priorities
• Section 3: Tech challenges hindering business outcomes
• Section 4: Integration tops IT and business agenda
• Look ahead

Fill in the form to download the full version of our whitepaper.