12 March 2010
Friday
Storage management a key to technology growth
By Victor Ng | Jun 24, 2009
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PrintRecent leading research findings show where the areas of continuing technology investments are, despite – or because of – the economic downturn.
Keys to productivity, performance and innovation
A new research paper by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sponsored by EMC, finds that organizational agility is critical for successful businesses today, especially in the current economic climate. According to the study, 81% of respondents view knowledge management and collaboration as the main drivers for increased productivity, enhanced performance and rapid innovation.
According to the report Organizational Agility: How Businesses Can Survive and Thrive in Turbulent Times, 88% of respondents – including half of all CEOs and CIOs -- believe organizational agility is crucial for global business success. However, more than 27% place their organizations at a competitive disadvantage because they lack the agility to anticipate fundamental marketplace shifts.
“For most companies, the path to agility involves transformation,” the report says. A majority of respondents believe IT will act as the agent of change for best-in-class knowledge-sharing and business agility. Executives point to faster access to real-time information (45%), improved search functionality (38%) and better integration of IT systems across the enterprise (38%) as key enablers of business agility. A large number surveyed report that tools enabling them to find, filter and focus content are critical drivers for business success.
Most report that processes such as knowledge management and collaboration – as well as those able to pull data from multiple applications used for research and development and product/service innovation – will drive agility and innovation.
However, while many respondents have undertaken agility initiatives, not all of them succeed. More than 80% of respondents claim to have undertaken one or more initiatives to improve agility over the past three years, yet 34% admitted those initiatives failed due to slow decision-making, conflicting departmental goals and priorities, risk-averse cultures and silo-based information. Additionally, 52% admitted to having wasted valuable time hunting for business-critical content, hindering their ability to make business decisions in a rapid fashion.
