Advocacy

Transform to Better Perform CIO Roundtable
Developing a New Scorecard for IT
September 16, 2015 / Singapore

In a new survey of global executives, business leaders overwhelming indicate the strategic importance of technology is at an all-time high within their organizations. Yet, the pace of technology change and innovation is lagging expectations. The survey suggests that a new scorecard is emerging for IT, which places greater emphasis on IT’s role in driving competitive advantage, customer value and business growth. The findings of this global survey demonstrate that Asia-Pacific is even more eager than their global counterparts to adopt transformative technologies and initiatives, which led us to set up our next roundtable in Singapore. A select group of leading IT executives in the region will explore how IT can respond to the challenge and create a new more collaborative relationship with the business groups, as well as what new models and approaches must emerge to improve the speed, agility and quality of IT innovation.

We invite IT leaders to enroll by emailing Sally Quigley:
[email protected].

Survey Finds APAC Business Execs Most Eager for IT Transformation

Asia-Pacific business executives are more eager than peers in other regions to adopt transformative new technologies, and they’re looking to their IT teams to increase levels of innovation, according to a regional analysis of a global BPI Network survey.

Ninety-five percent of the survey respondents in APAC say technology is more important to business than it was just five years ago – roughly the same total as in other areas. However, only 33 percent said their companies are embracing new technologies “very well” or “exceptionally well” compared with 42 percent globally, the survey found. Even more revealing: 19 percent of the APAC respondents replied “not very well,” more than twice the 8 percent who gave that answer in other areas.

The survey, conducted earlier this summer as a part of BPI’s Transform to Better Perform initiative sponsored by Dimension Data, also found high levels of dissatisfaction with the efforts of IT workers. Asked how they rate the level of innovation by their IT organizations, 29 percent said “poor,” which was almost twice the global response of 15 percent. And just 24 percent put the level of performance at “good” or “very high” compared with 47 percent globally.

More than seven in 10 respondents (72 percent), said their IT teams were “poor” or just “making progress” towards fulfilling a mandate to transform the company and become a more strategic, responsive and valued business partner. That compared with a 54 percent globally.

“All around the world, senior managers are eager to see progress in implementing a broad range of technologies that increase their agility, improve customer experience and make their companies more competitive,” said Dave Murray, head of thought leadership at the BPI Network. “Nowhere is this trend clearer than in the APAC region.”

To gauge the performance of the IT groups, two-thirds of the APAC respondents said they’d use reliability, scalability and security of the IT infrastructure as the key metric. The global group also picked that as the most important measure, but only 46 percent chose that.

There were also some clear differences in the approaches to technology in APAC versus the broader group:

• The most pressing IT goal in APAC was identified as “delivering new applications faster, better and at low cost.” That response was picked by 45 percent, compared with just 28 percent globally. The top response globally was to improve responsiveness to ever-changing business requirements (36 percent). Another 35 percent of the APAC respondents said the top item was to make IT more responsive to the business, while just 18 percent of the global group chose that response.
• 71 percent of the APAC group said their biggest challenge to completing an IT transformation is “gaining consensus and support” for new technology investments – far higher than the 44 percent who picked that globally.
• More than half of the APAC sampling (52 percent) said aging IT infrastructure was a major obstacle, almost twice the 28 percent who said that in the broader survey.
• Asked for the top goals for their datacenters in coming years, the answers in APAC were: Consolidate servers (62%), migrate to hybrid IT models (52%), and modernize and upgrade current facilities (43%). Those were the same choices as the global group, but in reverse order. Globally, modernizing and upgrading came first (48%), migrating to hybrid IT was second (44%), and consolidating servers was third (32%).

The reason for the increased signs of urgency in Asia-Pacific may stem from competitive pressures. Asked how their competitors were already using new technologies to disrupt the market, both groups said competitors were offering more choice, convenience and accessibility. However, that response came from 67 percent of the APAC respondents versus 45 percent of the global group.