IT departments struggle to meet configuration challenges
1 min read
70% of IT directors in manufacturing companies say that increased security threats and the need for continuous IT availability are acting as catalysts to improve the way they track and document system changes.
The dynamic nature of the sector is driving manufacturers towards systems that provide a real-time view, a risk and impact analysis of planned changes and visibility of interdependencies between IT components, according to the research.
Those are top level findings of a survey of IT directors by IT business management software developer Touchpaper.
But according to its study, despite the need for a real-time view of activity, more than half the IT directors questioned said they relied on manual systems to keep track of assets, their interdependencies and changes.
Just 41% said their systems received some form of automatic data feed, while only 37% managed data centrally. In addition, only 34% said they used industry standard ITIL processes to manage configuration data, highlighting a worrying development in the battle to manage change.
Other factors fuelling the demand for more effective Configuration Management (CM) systems - vital tools in the fight to keep IT systems available, secure and able to respond to rapidly-changing business needs - are increased pressures relating to supply chain issues, new entrants with cheaper employment costs, globalisation of the marketplace and pricing.
Says Touchpaper CEO Graham Ridgway: “Today's manufacturers are under more pressure to maximise supply chain efficiency at every stage in the process. They are also struggling to overcome the competitive challenges created by new market entrants and associated cheaper labour and components costs.
“Our survey found that IT directors from all sizes of manufacturers are seeking innovative and proven solutions that support them in these aims and deliver real-time configuration management.”
He suggests that companies need to optimise organisational use of their IT assets. And for that they need real time visibility of every system and device, including current location, owner, dependences, usage and history.
Investment in systems able to provide this functionality is, he believes, essential to allay management concerns surrounding security, availability, cost and regulation.