CA Technologies today revealed that almost two-thirds (61 percent) of European organisations are now undertaking IT transformation programmes to drive Business Service Innovation.
The independent survey “IT Transformation: Planning, Execution and Objectives in Europe,” carried out by IDG Connect on behalf of CA Technologies, which includes research among 300 IT decision makers across Europe, found that in an effort to deliver business services more quickly, cost-effectively and securely, 32 percent expect to launch IT transformation programmes within the next 12 months, despite dwindling resources.
With an average of 28 percent of an organisation’s IT budget now devoted to one or more IT transformation initiatives, it is more important than ever to effectively plan IT transformation goals.
Key IT transformation initiatives identified by the research included application portfolio management (adopted by 88 percent of organisations), data centre consolidation (77 percent), and public or private cloud services (75 percent).
The research found that 54 percent of organisations that use a project and portfolio management (PPM) solution for IT or business unit planning, and 62 percent that use a PPM solution for both areas are more confident than non-users about their organisation’s ability to plan and execute IT transformation projects.
“This survey confirms that non-PPM users are less confident about the likelihood of IT transformation success than respondents who work in organisations where PPM is used intensively,” Kathryn Cave, Editor of IDG Connect.
“The evidence also suggests that non-PPM users’ expectations of IT transformation are limited, while a strong correlation exists between organisations that use PPM and those which expect to reap ambitious rewards from IT transformation, including the ability to drive innovation, generate strategic value and improve business performance."
"For organisations that aim high, the risks of not fully exploiting the potential of IT transformation appear all the greater. No doubt this explains why they have chosen to use sophisticated tools to plan and execute their IT transformation programs.”
In addition, the survey found that IT decision-makers working for PPM-intensive organisations tend to harbour more ambitious hopes for IT transformation projects and placed a relatively high priority on more challenging or holistic objectives, including IT’s ability to drive innovation, generate strategic value and improve business performance.
By contrast, IT professionals working in organisations that did not use a project and portfolio management solution tended to emphasise less ambitious objectives, such as prioritising cost reductions and the ability to deliver IT services faster.
“The research provides conclusive evidence that European organisations need PPM to drive successful IT transformation programmes, and achieve Business Service Innovation,” said Marc Sorée, Country Manager CA Technologies Belgium.
“Successful IT transformation programmes - including technology initiatives such as cloud migration, application rationalisation and data centre consolidation, and business initiatives such as mobile employee empowermen - depend on the effective planning, execution and control of multiple inter-related programs and projects, over an extended period of time."
"By introducing a holistic view of the entire service portfolio, PPM empowers CIOs to successfully perform this planning, execution and control thereby reducing risk and cost, while accelerating delivery of innovative value adding services.”
