Advertisment

74pc IT decision makers bought technology that's difficult to use

Technology has undoubtedly transformed the way we work and has become intrinsically linked with how businesses function.

author-image
Preeti Gaur
New Update
no technology

BANGALORE, INDIA: Two thirds (66 per cent) of IT managers agree that the rapid pace of technological change is making decisions about IT investment more difficult than 10 years ago according to the results of a new study by Rackspace. The study, which polled 250 IT decision makers across the UK, found that as a result of this rapid pace of change, 62 per cent of IT decision makers have invested in hardware or software that has never been used by the organisation.

Advertisment

John Engates, CTO, Rackspace says: “Technology has undoubtedly transformed the way we work and has become intrinsically linked with how businesses function and run but it is also evolving at a much faster pace than ever before. Whilst the promise of IT transformation presents exciting opportunities for businesses, the sheer number of options facing IT departments is daunting. And the impact of IT failure is more public and more punitive than ever before. This is an industry-wide challenge.”

IT Department Challenges

The challenge extends right from bringing in the appropriate tools to effectively manage business applications and infrastructure, through to implementing the right technology for employees. Of those surveyed, more than half (51 per cent) had deployed technology within the company that employees have never used or received the full benefit from. One of the reasons for this may be that nearly three quarters (74 per cent) have bought technology that was more difficult to use than originally thought. Significantly, respondents that invested in difficult-to-use technology were more likely to go over budget (74 per cent) than those who managed to avoid it (26 per cent).

Advertisment

In addition, with long software update cycles quickly becoming a thing of the past, IT departments are being forced into weighing up whether to risk business disruption to update systems. Of those surveyed, 32 per cent left employees unable to access servers, 22 per cent caused a website to crash, 19 per cent left employees unable to access the internet and 18 per cent left employees unable to access emails.

Engates continues: “It’s an exciting time for IT departments. On the one hand technology is enabling them to become part of the business conversation around increasing efficiency, improving productivity and adding real value to their organizations. On the other hand, as a business critical function, there appears to be a feeling of vulnerability in terms of making a potentially damaging decision.

“Most organizations are now at a stage where they cannot feasibly be responsible for expertise across all the technology they use in their businesses.  We hear this from customers everyday – they want a trusted partner to help make decisions around buying and managing the right IT. This enables them to focus on adding that business value.”

software technology tech-news