A third of those polled (33%) said they 'need to do more to align their IT with the business', with 4% admitting that their IT-business alignment was 'poor'. Almost two in 10 also reported that management had 'no understanding' (5%) or a 'poor understanding' (14%) of the importance of IT to the business.
Professional IT development is another problem highlighted by Sysop's poll: 37% of respondents rated their organisation as 'could do better' (33%) or 'poor' (4%) in the development of IT professionals.
The poll surveyed change management, a core IT service management (ITSM) discipline covering key, company-protective changes to IT infrastructure – and revealed that 13% of respondents have no change manager or change advisory board (CAB).
Sysop tracked each phase of the development cycle to identify at what stage the CAB or change manager got involved. Only 17% of respondents said they got involved 'when change is chartered', so following IT service management best practice. A third (34%) said they got involved 'when detailed specification is designed'; 19% 'when build and test commences'; and 17% 'when build and test is complete'.
Stuart Sawle, Sysop managing director and consulting lead, said: "Standards can bring IT and the business together, but our poll reveals that many organisations still fail to follow or invest in them as consistently as they should in the key areas of incident, change and people management.
"Failure to address the issue is often far more costly than any investment would have been."
