Over a third have an IT-business alignment problem; 37 percent point to low or no IT professional development and 13 percent have no change manager.
Fifty four percent of companies will not be ready in the event of a major IT incident according to a new poll by IT educator and consultant Sysop , with respondents saying they are ‘poorly prepared’ (15 percent) or are ‘only prepared for some eventualities’ (39 percent) should a major incident occur. 33 percent of respondents say they ‘need to do more to align their IT with the business’, with four percent admitting that their IT-business alignment is ‘poor’. Almost two in ten also say that management has ‘no understanding’ (five percent) or a ‘poor understanding’ (14 percent) of the importance of IT to the business.
Professional IT development is another problem highlighted by Sysop’s poll: 37 percent of respondents say their organisation ‘could do better’ (33 percent) or is ‘poor’ (4 percent) in the development of its 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 percent 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 percent of respondents say that they got involved ‘when change is chartered’, so following IT service management best practice. 34 percent say they got involved ‘when detailed specification is designed’; 19 percent ‘when build and test commences’; and 17 percent ‘when build and test is complete’.
“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” comments Sysop managing director and consulting lead Stuart Sawle. “Failure to address the issue is often far more costly than any investment would have been.”
