Software AG has identified a common challenge caused by the rapid expansion of technology in today’s businesses. A new study reveals that 89% of organisations have rapidly expanded their technology in the past few years. 76% say it’s brought with it increased ‘chaos’ that they have to manage.
This situation makes governance efforts more complex, organisations less agile and can harm core activities, including service delivery and productivity. 86% of organisations have significantly grown their tech landscape, but 76% say it’s more challenging
The research was undertaken among senior executives in Germany, the UK and the USA. The respondents were evenly spread across several industries, including banking and financial services, public services, manufacturing, retail, transportation & logistics. The research was conducted in November 2023.
Nearly half of all respondents across the three countries were planning to invest in a range of business-critical technologies. US respondents, followed by UK respondents, had planned higher investment rates in these technologies.
These included:
- Data Integration 48%
- Workflow Automation 46%
- Cloud Migration 45%
- AI/ML 45%
- B2B (platform) Integration 45%
- Application modernisation 45%
- Application Integration 45%
- Business Intelligence / Analytics 44%
- API Management 43%
- Event Driven/Composable Architecture 41%
Dr Stefan Sigg, Chief Product Officer at Software AG suggested, “The complexity that organisations face in today’s world of disruption, risk and rapid technology change is greater than ever. It’s difficult to get a grip on all of this and be a successful organisation. We see our customers overcoming these challenges by finding the right tools to manage this technology related disorder. What those tools are depends on how the challenges manifest – but there is an answer out there.”
Types of Chaos
The three types of chaos identified as part of this research are:
- Operational Chaos – where a maze of different processes and systems slow down, duplicate or disrupt day-to-day operations. Overcoming these operational barriers allows organisations to be more competitive, better controlled and more agile. Operational resilience is the prize for organisations that can manage operational chaos.
- Chaos of Connectivity – where the expansion of systems is done without a plan to properly connect them together. Overcoming this lack of connectivity allows organisations to become more productive, agile, and better governed.
- IT Chaos occurs when the multiplication of different systems is not coordinated, and technology sprawls uncontrolled and unmanaged. Overcoming this IT threat enables organisations to control costs, plan future development, and increase operational resilience.
Dr Stefan Sigg continued, “Finding the right tools to manage the portfolio is key. But we should not be just talking about “managing”. These technology investments are being made as part of a transformation agenda. Organisations are aiming to differentiate themselves, be innovative and grow. Technology is a critical enabler for most of those plans. Greater transparency and control over the technology landscape will better align the tech and business agendas and set these companies up for success.”
Data silos remain the challenge
Data silos remain the key challenge for enterprises attempting to gain intelligence to support competitive advantage from their data. The research asked users about the technology issues that can slow down decision-making and/or action in their organisation.
- Data is inaccessible when it’s needed – 47%
- Key data can’t be easily moved out of legacy systems – 46%
- Duplicate processes or work cause internal conflicts – 45%
- Lack of integration specialists – 41%
- Lack of integration – 40%
- The process is too complicated – 37%
Key data points: Impact of expansion
- 69% of organisations have a higher number of disparate applications/systems compared to 2 years ago. 71% say that number will be higher in two years’ time.
- 70% of companies have accrued more Technical Debt in the last year.
- Managing legacy and new systems together is increasingly complex for 44%.
Agility issues:
- 80% say that the size of technology infrastructure makes it harder to be agile and/or productive.
- The same number (80%) feel complex tech makes them slow to launch new products/services, improve experiences for customers and employees and increase revenue/profitability.
Governance issues:
- 65% feel that tech complexity makes governance issues worse.
- 46% say difficulty moving data out of legacy systems slows down decision-making.
- 81% say that a major pain point is not having a clear view/management of all systems.
Operational issues: - 45% say a duplicate process that causes internal conflict slows down the action.
- IT and LoB are in conflict about deploying new apps in 80% of organisations.
- 82% of organisations say Shadow IT is a problem.
Enterprise Times: What this means for businesses
All enterprises want to innovate. However, organisations often face a number of fundamental challenges to embracing change. Software AG’s says the challenges manifest in 3 ways: “Operational Chaos”, a “Chaos of Connectivity” and “IT Chaos.” This often leads to data silos, which are often cited by businesses as a major barrier to digital transformation and innovation. As a result, many organisations have a learning curve and feel some kind of pain when they try to innovate.
Today’s businesses are becoming increasingly more dependent on data and intelligence than ever before. However, even the largest businesses are forced to use old-gen tools to try and unlock the true value of their data. Businesses need an enterprise integration proposition that enables them to integrate anything, anywhere and anyhow. Software AG’s research suggests companies across Germany, the UK and the US are beginning that transition through their investment plans.
