As general economic conditions across the UK improve, business transformation is firmly on the agenda of C-Level executives across the country, according to research released today.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of IT decision makers surveyed by Research Now agreed their Board understands the role of IT in driving business competitiveness, whilst 70% said their business wants to spend more on innovation and transformation projects.
Many are not in a position to react to the economic upswing, according to the report, with 52% saying that the adoption of technology innovation is being stifled because of lack of budget.
The pressure that legacy systems and maintenance are placing on IT departments was also highlighted in the report, which discovered that 53% of IT budgets are currently being spent on maintaining legacy systems, compared to only 34% on introducing new equipment and applications.
In contrast, German and South African organisations are reportedly placing more importance on innovation, with 41% and 46% of their IT budgets being spent on introducing new equipment and applications.
The primary challenge that IT decision makers in the UK face in driving business transformation is ‘adapting IT and network infrastructures to support new technologies’, the report stated. In contrast, security was the main challenge for those in France and Germany. However, consistent among all the countries was the top security fear of unauthorised access to the network
Generally speaking, the UK appeared in the report to have some stronger strategies in place than its counterparts. For example, 53% cited implementation of policy management as a security strategy, versus just 17% of French respondents. However, this was still significantly smaller than the implementation by 75% of South African companies.
Meanwhile, 32% of UK respondents noted that a denial of service (DoS) attack prevention strategy was in place, while in Germany, this figure was just 21%. Packet and signalling encryption was also more prevalent in the UK than Germany, with 38% of UK respondents citing its employment in comparison to 21% of their German counterparts.
“It is clear from this report that IT departments are under increasing pressure to balance the desire to embrace new technologies that can transform the business, while continuing to maintain legacy systems,” said Serge Adam, vice president, EMEA, Sonus Networks.
“The good news is that this balancing act is possible when the focus is put on technologies that can interoperate with and overlay existing investments, while simultaneously enabling secure multimedia communications that can transform the business.
“In this way, IT leaders can play a key role in driving innovation, improving customer service and using technology to create a competitive advantage.”
