IT at a crossroads

A recent survey conducted by techconsult on behalf of Campana & Schott shows that in 44.5 percent of companies, business and IT are still not working properly together. This means that these companies are wasting valuable potential. The survey gathered the status quo of IT among 200 IT executives from companies of various industries and sizes in Germany. It addresses the central question of how IT can initiate and drive forward future-oriented projects without giving away performance and know-how.

The current economic situation requires companies to be flexible and innovative to remain competitive. Especially in times of crisis, companies review their processes for efficiency potential. Digitization offers the opportunity not only to maintain one's status quo, but also to increase competitiveness - if IT and business work together. Instead of drowning in day-to-day business, IT managers need to network with the business departments and ask strategic business questions. 

The work of IT departments involves day-to-day system operations on the one hand, and the development of new ideas and digital innovations on the other. As a rule, if a company needs more than 70 percent of its time for system administration and ongoing operations, forward-looking digitization is getting short shrift. 

The day-to-day situation in German companies is as follows: Just under a third of companies (28%) need an average of 40 percent, and another third (30.5%) spend about 60 percent of their time on routine tasks. In these companies, there is still enough capacity left over to think about innovations, initiate model projects and introduce new technologies. But: many companies are not at all in a position to drive forward future-oriented projects due to the burden of everyday operations. In addition, the resource situation of IT departments is very tight overall. 

In order to be able to assess how well one's own processes are working, it is necessary to take an outside view and obtain feedback from the specialist departments and the business. Otherwise, untapped potential cannot be used and exploited.

IT departments need to reduce their routine efforts to improve their resource situation and actively participate in future plans. "IT departments can significantly reduce their burden
a. by using experienced partners, b. through comprehensive cloud solutions, and most importantly, c. through 'citizen development',  i.e., technological empowerment of business departments." explains Dr. Eric Schott. "This gives them the much-needed freedom to implement business-critical innovations for the future."

Through stronger networking with the business, IT gains more insight into strategic issues and business processes. In turn, the business learns what opportunities IT and digitization offer to act better and faster.

You can read the complete results in the whitepaper "IT at a crossroads: Between shaping the future and managing shortcomings", in which Campana & Schott presents measures that enable IT departments to position their company for the future together with the business. 

Whitepaper "IT at a crossroads"
Cloud
Change Management