Kovarus Survey: Significant Gap Exists Between Business And IT

SAN RAMON, Calif., April 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Kovarus, Inc., a leading systems integrator specializing in increasing IT efficiency by architecting and integrating business-aligned IT solutions, today announced additional findings from a recent survey of IT decision-makers regarding the spending habits of the IT department.

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The survey revealed that only 28% of IT decision-makers prioritize their spending to provide innovative solutions for the business. This figure correlates with a long-standing industry average percentage around spending by IT Departments on innovation. The remaining 72% considered a more traditional budget spending approach, with a large focus on fixing issues at hand and direct expense reduction.

"Our research shows a clear divide between the needs of the business and the business' perceived capability of the IT Department to satisfy those needs," said Andy Lewis, CIO of Kovarus. "The business units are making somewhat independent decisions to source their IT services without a true understanding of the true value that their IT departments have to offer."

Key survey findings include:

• No clear decision-making criteria for IT budget allocation. The survey identified at least six different methods that IT departments use to make decisions to prioritize spending. A total of 7% responded that they actually prioritized based on who applied the most pressure.
• Only 18% took a holistic view on how best to spend based on the corporate fiscal year goals. These respondents were able to make decisions based on the big picture; prioritizing their spending with an earned seat at the executive table.
• 38% prioritized their investment decisions based on true alignment and value to the business. As previously reported by the first installment of Kovarus' survey data, many critical decisions are being made without the correct business insight, putting the IT department at a disadvantage with business units who have the ear to external service providers.
• Quality and stability continue to plague IT's reputation. 24% of those surveyed continue to focus their time and money on fixing existing issues. This perpetuates IT's challenge to turn its reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) perception around. By increasing transparency, creating a plan and continuing to improve, sharing these results will start closing the gap.
• 35% do not follow a strict process in determining their IT spending decisions. These respondents considered many different factors each time they had to make a financial investment decision with no one process being followed repeatedly. Unpredictable influences from certain departments/individuals will continue to create skewed outcomes, which overall will create doubt in the stakeholders' minds.

"IT currently lacks the sales presence and tactics of their competition as their clients are wooed with the external shiny objects. Businesses should proceed with caution: all that glitters is not gold," said Lewis. "For IT to be an effective business partner, it needs to provide a consumable service model. IT should consider its ability to sell and market its services to become the 'go-to-partner' of choice. A structured ITaaS transformation program can provide the opportunity to close the gap between IT and the business."

The survey was conducted by TeleVerde on behalf of Kovarus. The sample included North American CIOs, IT Directors and IT Managers. This is a follow-up to the initial results announced earlier this month – Survey: Critical IT Decisions are Being Made Without Accurate Business Insight.

About Kovarus

Kovarus focuses on increasing IT efficiency for their clients by architecting and integrating business-aligned IT solutions. The company's holistic approach to helping customers deliver IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) focuses on the people, process, and technologies for enabling IT management and service delivery. This includes deep expertise in data center technologies, including: virtualization, server, storage, networking and cloud computing. Kovarus enables its customers to dramatically simplify their IT operating model and cost-effectively deliver the resources their organizations need to succeed in today's highly competitive environment. 

Kovarus has been chosen as a premier partner by leading technology companies including VMware, EMC, and Cisco, and has successfully helped a wide range of private and public sector customers drive business innovation and success. Founded in 2003, Kovarus is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with additional locations in Sacramento, Seattle, and Denver. For more information on Kovarus, please visit www.kovarus.com.

SOURCE Kovarus, Inc.