IT Maturity, Outsourced Services Help IT Groups Grow Revenue
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
New Kaseya study examines IT best practices to drive success.
IT maturity correlates with revenue growth rate according to the findings of the latest study released by IT management software provider Kaseya, whose annual IT operations benchmark survey highlights the various maturity levels and corresponding drivers of success for IT departments at mid-sized enterprises. Revealing the best practices that IT organizations are employing to manage their complex networks of existing technology as well as their new cloud-based infrastructures, apps, mobile devices, and more.
“Most IT organizations at small and mid-size companies struggle to meet their goals and objectives due in large part to constraints on resources,” said Kirk Feathers, VP customer enablement for Kaseya. “In contrast, those organizations that have reached a higher level of IT maturity by automating mundane activities, standardizing and streamlining processes, and leveraging cloud services, have the time to focus on IT projects that drive business results and end-user satisfaction. We’re pleased that Kaseya is able to offer solutions that help businesses at all maturity levels to achieve these results, leading to improved overall IT performance.”
Among the study’s findings:
- IT maturity correlates with revenue growth rates: 36 percent of companies with the highest IT maturity achieved revenue growth over 10 percent between 2014 and 2015, whereas only 21 percent of the less mature companies did so
- Outsourced services help IT groups succeed: on average, respondents at higher maturity levels outsource 20 percent more services than those at lower levels
- Mature companies use cloud services associated with PaaS, IaaS and SaaS 50 percent more often than less mature companies
- The top 3 IT priorities for 2016 are: (1) completing projects on time, (2) delivering higher service levels, (3) improving customer experience
- Most (86 percent) respondents are still in the early stages of IT maturity: only 14 percent consider their organizations to be mature, a 3 percent increase from last year’s survey
The study provided a number of key recommendations for moving forward. They were:
- Don’t get left behind — start today: The old adage it’s never too late to start something new is appropriate here. Adopt IT management and security tools that enable you to view, monitor, and manage your entire IT environment holistically.
- Automate everything: Automating as many parts of your process as possible helps you make the most of your company’s IT organization.
- Always keep improving: Once you gain control over your IT processes, don’t stop improving. Being proactive versus reactive will keep your IT organization in top form.
- Budgets are important, but metrics are the drivers of success: Tracking and measuring are no longer a luxury for IT organizations.
- Cloud services are going mainstream, but make sure you can manage them: Mature IT groups view the cloud as a strategic enabler, allowing them to create systems that allow them to focus on improving customer and end-user experience, but the ability to actively monitor and manage these cloud services is essential to ensure that they are actually doing what you want them to do for you.
- Device performance baselining and predictive analytics are the future: Strategic and aligned companies are using device performance baselining over 100 percent more frequently than reactive companies, and predictive analytics almost 200 percent more frequently.