CA survey highlights urgency of improved IT-business alignment
ConvergenceAsia staff
21/11/2007

According to a survey sponsored by IT management software company CA, IT executives around the world are seeking to do a better job of aligning IT investments with business goals, but only about half believe they are doing so.

Overall, the survey showed that skills shortfalls and technology integration concerns were cited as top obstacles to the implementation of best practices.

The CA survey polled 300 CIOs and other top IT executives at companies with more than US$250 million in annual revenue in Europe, the US and Asia, with 33 per cent of the companies based in Asia.

Respondents in Asia outlined that the primary drivers for alignment were a desire to avoid spending that yields a low ROI (return on investment), and the need to ensure fulfillment of business-side demand.

Half of the respondents worldwide indicate their companies are effective in enabling IT to set priorities based on business goals. Respondents in Asia are significantly more likely than those in the US to rate their organisations as successful in this area.

IT executives in Asia are also more likely to be dissatisfied with their organisations’ performance in improving service to end-users, controlling costs, and other goals than their counterparts overseas.

Worldwide, 53 per cent of respondents claim that the biggest barrier to improved alignment is shortfalls in staff skills. In Asia, this figure is slightly higher at 56 per cent while “technology integration changes” is seen as only a secondary barrier at 45 per cent.

On the upside, 67 per cent of respondents indicate that the number one success factor in IT-business alignment is standardisation of policies and procedures.

Respondents from Asia are most likely to specifically cite best practices frameworks such as ITIL as the top reason they have been able to achieve their goals, even though only 55 per cent of them have adopted, or are planning to adopt, ITIL in the next 12 months. For those who have already adopted ITIL, 98 per cent of the respondents in Asia stated that ITIL either met or exceeded their expectations.

“It is clear that, across Asia, IT executives are increasingly adopting ITIL as a standard within the company,” said Michael Powell, Director, BSO Business Unit Sales, CA APJ.

“The focus in Asia is to drive IT to suit business priorities. It is the return on investments in IT that IT executives are looking at,” he added.

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