The Economist Intelligence Unit - VMware

Executive summary A report from The Economist Intelligence Unit

The IT archipelago The decentralisation of enterprise technology

Decentralisation of IT is challenging the operations of the firm Technology is permeating every part of almost every enterprise, from the supply chain to finished products, from accounting to customer service. Once-specialised technology applications are becoming more accessible to non-specialists. IT departments are increasingly stretched and unable to meet the rising demands of business users. These factors are causing business users to take IT matters into their own hands—which may benefit them but also often disperses decision making, fragments standards, and duplicates IT assets. This creates a complexity that is harming operations—increasing costs, challenging collaboration, and increasing vulnerability to cyber-attacks. In July and August of 2016 the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by VMware, conducted a survey of 600 senior IT and business executives to explore escalating complexity driven by decentralisation. The findings that follow analyse decentralisation’s drivers, how it is unfolding, and the impact on the operations of the firm.

The nature of IT decentralisation More than 40% of IT executives believe that technology is being decentralised across their companies. Where is this migration unfolding? Sponsored by

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Business users say they are purchasing or developing a broad range of IT technologies and assets—especially their own devices (BYOD), applications and cloud networks. This © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2016


What IT functions are being decentralised? Please indicate your disagreement or agreement with the following statement about IT activity in your line of business or corporate function. (Business users) (% of respondents)

Our department is… Authorising new devices for our people

72

Purchasing third party apps

56

Building our own apps

48

Developing our own cloud services

45

Making our own technology decisions Reaching agreements with technology vendors Hiring or training our own IT personnel Deploying our own security solutions

40 34 34 33 Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, 2016

Where is IT decentralisation occurring? Please give your assessment of the growth of IT activity in the following lines of business or corporate functions over the next two years (IT personnel) (%)

Projected rate of growth Lines of business

13

Sales and CRM

12

Marketing

11 11 11

Product Development Supply Chain Finance

10 10

Distribution Human Resourcs

8 Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, 2016

is not an isolated trend—while the survey shows that the foremost developers of in-house IT are the lines of business, the transition is being extended to all major corporate functions.

The drivers of decentralisation Why is this happening? IT executives and business cite different reasons. Executives in IT—perhaps aware of the backlog of projects on their plate—see their own limited bandwidth as the primary driver of business user-driven IT. A contributing factor in their eyes is the shortage of qualified IT personnel that that is challenging many IT organisations. Business executives see another set of motivations. As technology is integrated into business operations, they see the need for domain knowledge—for example, salespeople knowing how customer data needs to be captured—to build, deploy and manage the new technologies most effectively.

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© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2016


IT Executives What are the most important drivers of change in IT decision making?

Business users What would be your primary reason for managing a major IT initiative by yourself?

(% of respondents)

(% of respondents)

IT can’t move fast enough to support the businesses

We know our needs/have the expertise

36 A shortage of skilled workers is forcing business users to make decisions

34 Tech is becoming a larger part of products & services

28 Deployment requires our business knowledge

15 Prefer to build solution we will be working with

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32 Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, 2016

Both of these views are correct, and can be mutually reinforcing—increased business activity strains scarce IT resources, in turn driving the businesses to develop their own independent capabilities.

A proliferation of technologies A consequence of the growth of independent IT silos is the profusion of technology assets. IT department respondents report a significant proliferation of devices, solutions and networks within the enterprise (and these are just the ones they know about.) Please provide your assessment of the number of the following assets that are currently under operation in your enterprise (managed by either IT or business users). (IT executives) Device types

11

Data management solutions

8 8 8

Cloud services Security solutions Data analytics solutions Mobility operating systems

7 7 Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, 2016

This profusion of assets—some of them no doubt duplicative—can rapidly escalate the parameters of even the simplest enterprise IT project. Take the conservative example of developing a customer-facing app in a company with three mobile solutions, eight supported devices, and four data management systems—the solution would require almost 100 implementations. In an era of fast-paced competitive change, such complexity would significantly delay implementation. In addition, proliferation typically fragments companies’ buying power.

The effect of complexity on the IT department IT departments are feeling the strain of this decentralisation on their operations and their people, executives report: l Three out of four IT executives say that decentralisation is making IT’s job more challenging

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l Almost 70% say that decentralisation is increasing the strain on IT personnel l Nearly three out of four say that proliferation of IT activities is reducing IT’s ability to protect the firm from cyber-attacks. As the technologisation of business continues, these pressures will only escalate.

The effect of complexity on the enterprise Finally, technology decentralisation has already become a challenge to the operations of the enterprise though fewer than half of IT executives say it’s happening to them. l Two-thirds of IT executives believe that decentralisation has raised IT costs for the firm. l 60% believe that multiple, duplicative systems make cross-enterprise collaboration more challenging l 66% state that fragmentation of IT decision-making has increased the firm’s vulnerability to cyber-attacks. Given that data security is regularly cited as the highest IT priority in many countries, increased cyber-vulnerability is perhaps the most immediate challenge created by the decentralisation of IT.1

Conclusion The IT archipelago describes a chain of independent IT functions that is emerging across the enterprise. Given the fast pace of technology change in our times, it seems likely that we can only expect these islands of assets, decision-making and authority to continue to rise. Decentralisation is a part of a larger rebalancing between traditional IT and the business functions. Our research finds that the process has progressed to the point that it can harm the operational efficiency and security of the enterprise. Senior leadership must step in to create a new balance that combines the effectiveness of centralised IT control with the need for technological agility in the business.

Who took the survey? Respondents: IT: 300; Business users: 300 Position in the company: IT: CIOs 29%; VP of IT: 18%; Chief Security Officer: 10%; all others Directors and above. Business users: 100% Directors and above. Size of Company (revenues): 100% over $500 mm. Average size $2.1 billion. Industries: 20 industries, none more than 10% of total. Location: 33% Americas; 33% EMEA; 33% Asia-Pacific.

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1. Economist Intelligence Unit, The Cyber-chasm: How the disconnect between the C-suite and security endangers the enterprise, 2016

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