A new study published by TalkTalk Business has revealed that the UK’s biggest companies are missing opportunities to grow because of siloed IT policies.
A third of enterprises blame individual departments who run their own IT agenda and restrict the business from becoming more agile.
The Beta Business research, carried out by Ovum, also highlighted that agility is exactly what most companies are frustrated with within the IT core of their business, with more than a third complaining about outdated IT infrastructure including bespoke, hard-wired legacy software.
Four out of five larger British firms understand the importance of business agility and commercial success. Furthermore, nine out of ten SMEs recognised the need for business agility, but are demanding more technology choices to help them achieve this.
Nearly a third of the respondents also believe that a more collaborative approach to IT is the best route to achieving agility and 24% are looking at commitment from the C suite as a game changer to improve ICT agility.
Furthermore, more than a quarter say their organisation isn’t agile and a third are dissatisfied with the pace of change.
The research, based on responses from 235 corporate and enterprise companies, found that under-investment, security, business continuity and regulation were the biggest barriers to agility within large companies.
As many as 40% of enterprises feel they are being held back by technology, with a further 40% showing to be unhappy with the time it takes IT to process requests.
Only eight per cent blame their organisation’s lack of agility on the performance of the network, while 70% of businesses say decision making is a collaborative effort.
60% of businesses said constant broadband connectivity is most important to maximise ICT performance. Anytime, anywhere, access to business materials was also pointed to as critical to achieving commercial goals (50%).
Charles Bligh, Managing Director of TalkTalk Business, said: "With confidence returning to the British economy it has never been more important for corporate and enterprise businesses to be agile, and grasp every opportunity. Our research, in conjunction with Ovum, highlights the importance of an agile infrastructure and calls for enterprises to make a change and push ICT decisions into the boardroom. A make-do-and mend approach to IT is a false economy, which could cost corporate dear in the long run.
"By prioritising collaboration and coupling greater C-suite engagement with early adoption and constant iteration, enterprises can ensure that they maintain the essential bandwidth and network infrastructure needed to support data heavy applications and create an infrastructure of the future."
