Troubling Gaps Between IT and Business Executives Hamper Innovation and Business Growth

ISLANDIA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to “Why IT Needs to Lead Now: The Innovation Imperative,” a new CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) study unveiled today, a disconnect between IT and business executives and lack of focus on innovation may be leading to missed opportunities to drive revenue, grow market share, increase speed to market and improve customer satisfaction.

“The Future Role of the CIO: Digital Literacy”

Of the 800 global business and IT executives surveyed, 34 percent of the business respondents characterize their relationship with IT as combative, distrustful or siloed, and 31 percent on the IT side agree with that assessment. Similarly, one-third of IT respondents identified IT as an “authority or expert on innovation,” while only one-fifth (21 percent) of business executives believe the same.

Findings show that IT respondents are also more likely to position themselves as driving innovation, being an expert on innovation or having the required skills to foster innovation than their business counterparts. Business respondents rated IT lower across the study’s eight metrics on this topic, including knowledge of the business, skill sets and communication skills.

“This study on innovation confirms that the majority of IT resources are still dedicated to ‘keeping the lights on.’ IT is at a critical point where it must determine how to remove inefficiencies to deliver business-critical projects with speed and agility,” said Andi Mann, vice president, Strategic Solutions, CA Technologies. “Formalizing, measuring and rewarding innovation are important first steps to deriving true business value and will help to create confidence among a CIO’s peers in the C-suite for IT to take the reins on innovation.”

Further, the Innovation Imperative study outlines the importance of innovation for driving business success with achieved or expected benefits ranging from higher customer satisfaction (86 percent), increased speed to market (79 percent), to increased profit (85 percent) and revenue/market share (83 percent). On the other hand, not investing in innovation can result in an inability to attract new customers/markets (37 percent), increased competitive pressure (32 percent) and revenue loss (31 percent).

Similarly, in “The Future Role of the CIO: Digital Literacy,” a study of 685 CIOs in 22 countries, one-fifth of the CIOs indicate that the C-suite does not understand the impact of new and emerging technologies. This senior-level ‘digital illiteracy’ is causing diminished market responsiveness, missed business and investment opportunities, poor competitiveness and slower time-to-market.

The results of these two studies confirm an age-old issue regarding the dynamics between IT and business executives. The key take-away is that the CIO and IT departments, in general, are in a prime position to help their organizations drive innovation for business benefit, and to help business leaders better understand the value of technology to improve customer satisfaction, create competitive advantage and increase profits.

Professor Joe Peppard, director of the Information Systems Research Centre at Cranfield School of Management noted, “CIOs are in a good position to become more involved in strategic discussions. This will enable them to demonstrate how a particular digital strategy or project can deliver value, and win the credibility to take it forward.”

For more information about the “Why IT Needs to Lead Now: The Innovation Imperative” survey and for links to access additional materials visit www.ca.com/ii.

To learn more about “The Future Role of the CIO: Digital Literacy” study visit www.ca.com/digitalliteracy.

About CA Technologies

CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) provides IT management solutions that help customers manage and secure complex IT environments to support agile business services. Organizations leverage CA Technologies software and SaaS solutions to accelerate innovation, transform infrastructure and secure data and identities, from the data center to the cloud. Learn more about CA Technologies at www.ca.com.

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