How Strategic Organizations Maximize IT’s Value
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How Strategic Organizations Maximize IT’s Value
By Dennis McCafferty -
Calling the Shots
36% of survey respondents at strategic companies said their CIO or vice president of IT is the prime person responsible for tech decisions, compared to just 26% of those at reactive companies who say the same. -
Top IT Priorities for Strategic Companies
Improving customer experience: 33%, Improving employee productivity: 30%, Reducing IT costs: 30%, Increasing IT automation: 25% -
Enforced Standards
Two-thirds of survey respondents at strategic organizations either make it mandatory for the IT department to have formal SLAs covering the availability and performance of IT services, or provide guidelines for this. But only 22% of those at reactive businesses do so. -
On the Clock
32% of those at strategic companies measure mean time to recovery (MTTR) to track problem management, compared to just 12% of those at reactive organizations who measure this. -
Outside Assistance: Access Assurance
62% of those at strategic organizations said they use either cloud or service providers for their network and connectivity support, but just 38% of those at reactive companies do. -
Outside Assistance: Protected State
60% of those at strategic companies said they use cloud or service providers for desktop security services, as opposed to 50% of those at reactive organizations who do. -
Outside Assistance: Ticket Item
60% of those at strategic companies turn to cloud or service providers for desktop/help desk support, compared to about two of five of those at reactive businesses who do. -
Outside Assistance: Migration Consideration
41% of those at strategic businesses will support and contract for public cloud services on behalf of business if their IT department can't fulfill the equivalent need in-house, as opposed to 30% of those at reactive organizations who will do this. -
Top Tactics/Strategies for Optimizing IT Efficiency
Data storage and/or backup: 85%, Centralized antivirus/anti-malware scanning: 82%, Password management: 68%, Policy management: 67%, Remote device access/control: 65% -
Major Responsibility
46% of survey respondents from all companies said they have less than 100 managed devices per technician within their organization, but 45% said they have more than 100 to 500 managed devices per technician.
Companies that are considered strategic are highly focused on improving customer experiences while reducing IT costs and increasing tech automation, according to a recent survey from Kaseya. The report, "IT Operations Benchmark Survey 2015," examines differences between companies that are considered strategic (meaning IT takes a key role in driving business innovation while achieving operational excellence with day-to-day tech needs) and reactive (meaning the tech department essentially responds to individual user challenges and requests). Results reveal that strategic companies set a high bar when it comes to implementing formal SLAs for IT services, and are more likely to measure mean time to recovery (MTTR) to track problem management. Many of these organizations also take advantage of the cloud to support business objectives and desktop security needs. "Most IT groups … find that they don't have enough time to invest in strategic projects," said Loren Jarrett, chief marketing officer for Kaseya. "By adopting the practices of mature IT organizations, including automating IT management activities, standardizing and streamlining processes and leveraging cloud services, IT groups at companies of all sizes can free up more time and resources to focus on projects that will drive results for business." CIOs, IT directors/managers, network engineers, systems administrators and other tech pros representing 500 companies took part in the research.