UK firms lack IT strategy for key business change
1 min read
Companies in the UK are risking serious problems when increasingly occurring change hits them – due to the unpreparedness of their IT.
Just 26% of IT directors and CIOs have strategies to manage unexpected change events, despite 72% seeking to improve enterprise-wide co-ordination, according to a recent study for change governance firm Serena Software.
Its survey also found that 14% of IT directors have invested nothing in contingency plans for change, and that they admit the consequences of change – externally or instigated by the business – could seriously damage their company’s operations.
Manufacturers are increasingly being forced to deal with change due to a range of issues – regulatory compliance, market conditions, competitive threats, globalisation, mergers and acquisitions, and so on. Indeed 58% of IT directors cited the drive to improve business efficiency as one of the key drivers for change.
And the problems companies are creating for themselves are likely to be a risk much more than the IT itself – including notably human and financial resources, and ultimately quality and customer service.
Serena UK manager Ian Forsyth believes the consequences for many will be crippling. Even for those able to manage change in the departments hit, by implementing mitigation projects, are highly likely to find that their inability to see the interdependencies and impacts of change across the business will have unforeseen and damaging outcomes.
He also suggests that individual software change management solutions can’t do the business because they only cover application development. Serena’s Change Governance software, he says, takes a holistic view and can radically change the outcome of change events for the better.
“With change governance solutions, all change-related activities – planning, developing, implementing, monitoring and enforcing – are integrated across the enterprise to bridge silos of change and create a common frame of reference for business and IT,” says Forsyth.
Serena’s systems incorporate standards like ITIL and application lifecycle management and operational process management software, the latest iteration of which is Dimensions 10.
The approach, says Forsyth, enables companies to understand the interdependencies and impact of change before it happens, and to translate that into policies and processes, and ensure consistent adoption regardless of where the change comes from or which tools and technologies are involved.
