In 89 percent of mid-sized companies IT management focuses on day-to-day tasks that are often time-consuming and manual which means that business isn't getting the most from its IT investment.
This is one of the main findings of a survey by cloud-based IT management provider Kaseya which looked at 500 mid-sized enterprises globally and compares the practices of IT departments in faster growth companies with those in slower growth companies, and the practices of more mature IT organizations with those of less mature ones.
The 11 percent of companies that have achieved higher levels of maturity are reaping benefits in important ways for their businesses. The survey findings suggest IT groups can do more to drive the effectiveness of both IT and the business by better utilizing the limited resources they have. Results indicate that by using automation more for both routine tasks and problem avoidance, and by fully embracing cloud technologies, IT groups can spend more of their time on strategic projects that contribute to end-user productivity and drive the success of the business overall.
"Most IT groups in mid-sized companies find that they don't have enough time to invest in strategic projects," says Loren Jarrett, chief marketing officer for Kaseya. "Our survey results suggest that by adopting the practices of mature IT organizations, including automating IT management activities, standardizing and streamlining processes, and leveraging cloud services, IT groups at companies of all sizes can free up more time and resources to focus on projects that will drive results for the business".
Other findings include that there's no correlation between the size of a company and its IT management maturity level, indicating that companies of all sizes can benefit from investments in maturing their IT operations. For companies who grew their revenue at greater than 10 percent between 2013 and 2014, 36 percent were considered to have reached the highest maturity levels, against 11 percent for all companies in the study.
Two-thirds of companies at the highest IT management maturity levels have formal service level agreements (SLAs). For more than half of these meeting their SLAs is mandatory. IT organizations at the highest levels of maturity are also almost twice as likely to report that they drive IT decisions, instead of their CEO or CFO.
The full report is available to download from the Kaseya website.
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