Simpler IT makes for better business
Complex IT systems arise for many reasons, adding new systems to old ones, expansion through mergers or takeovers, or simply demand for more sophisticated solutions.
But a new study by IDC, sponsored by business software specialist Oracle, concludes that IT complexity leads to lower profits and curbs an organization’s ability to innovate and grow.
Complex IT can lead to reduced profits, less innovation, reduced customer satisfaction and loss of competitive advantage. For the IT department it also means higher operational costs and decreased productivity.
"From the boardroom to the IT department, it is clear that battling complexity is a never-ending challenge organizations today must address," says Oracle Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Bob Evans. "Many of our customers are tired of doing all the integration work themselves, so they are investing in systems that are engineered to work together. Or they're migrating to cloud services that work well with each other. Those companies are spending less time and money on integration and maintenance, and more on innovation, so they are better positioned to compete and succeed".
Companies participating in the study said they were able to achieve annual benefits of $3,610 per user thanks to initiatives to simplify IT. Since the average company studied had around 23,000 IT users that could translate to $83 million in annual benefits.
The results also show that initiatives to simplify IT can lead to non-monetary benefits such as improved user productivity, faster time to market and better customer experience.
Efforts to simplify IT included migrating data to the cloud, investing in engineered systems, replacing legacy systems with more modern applications, and other steps. Most participating organizations found that to truly simplify their IT they needed to replace outdated infrastructure with a simpler, consolidated, modern foundation that was better equipped to address today's demands.
You can access the full study on the Oracle website, there's also an online test to help you assess the complexity of your own organization's IT.
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