Report Reveals Pandemic was a Forcing Function for Data-Driven Executive Decisions

By The Bizops Coalition

Apr 19, 2021

3 minutes

BOSTON – APRIL 19, 2021 – The BizOps Coalition, which advocates for fundamental change in the way business and IT collaborate in modern software development, today announced the findings of its inaugural BizOps industry research survey on the state of digital business. The report found 87 percent of respondents believe companies must become more agile to deal with rapidly changing market conditions, while 94 percent advise companies to adopt BizOps for increased competitiveness.

The survey found pandemic-related issues remain at the top of the list of challenges confronting businesses in 2021. In fact, 60 percent of enterprise leaders believe 2021 will be just as challenging as last year. Remote workers (73 percent), global uncertainty and economic impact of the pandemic (65 percent), and the COVID vaccine (60 percent) were all reported as top concerns by enterprise organizations surveyed.

"After more than a year, businesses are finally looking ahead to the next phase in their transformation efforts," said Laureen Knudsen, Chief Transformation Officer at Broadcom and BizOps Coalition founding member. "The survey results underscore the ongoing challenges businesses are facing, but they also highlight the opportunity to nurture greater alignment to drive desired business outcomes."

Pandemic Fuels Focus on Agility

With the events of 2020 behind them, 87 percent of survey respondents agree companies need to be more agile to deal with the rapidly changing market conditions. And 83 percent believe agile is critical to their business in 2021.

The survey also points to the need for an integrated culture where business and IT are aligned on business outcomes, but there's a startling dichotomy between respondents' beliefs and the day-to-day reality, as revealed by the data.

95 percent of survey respondents agree a successful digital transformation is about business outcomes, not just the technology.
Yet, 62 percent admit technology is often adopted purely for technology's sake, and 61 percent report that technology selections are not always linked to business objectives.

"Digital transformation success cannot rely on technology alone," said Pierre Viljoen, CTO & Head of Enterprise Technology & Governance, HCL Enterprise Studio and a founding member of the BizOps Coalition. "To support transformation objectives, the business and IT culture must embrace a holistic transformation including people, process, and technology to be a true force multiplier. When everyone is committed to the same objectives, with apt knowledge of the business operations and processes, technology decisions can be made within the appropriate context of business outcomes and can better support the business in meeting them."

Data-Based Decision-Making is the Future of Executive Leadership

Information flow and the ability to make strategic decisions that support business outcomes is another area for improvement. The survey reveals that:

The vast majority of respondents – 97 percent – report data-related challenges are limiting the information available to the business.
Not surprisingly, too much data is their biggest challenge, followed by limitations in business-level metrics.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents struggle to create business metrics from data.
Almost three-quarters fail to have key data available in real-time, inhibiting data-driven decision-making.

"Data is the lifeblood of modern business," said Isaac Sacolick, President of StarCIO and author of Driving Digital. "It's critical that businesses enable more people across the organization to derive actionable insights from data. Using dataops technology, citizen data science, proactive data governance, machine learning, and AI, IT can lead businesses to uncover the valuable, contextual data they need to inform business decisions."

BizOps Accelerates Opportunities and Data-Driven Decision Making

BizOps enables improved strategic decision-making, agility and business clarity, as well as a more inclusive, collaborative culture. Ninety-eight percent of respondents said BizOps benefits would be valuable to their company, while 78 percent of companies surveyed report plans to adopt BizOps.

With a BizOps approach respondents expect to see other potential business benefits from BizOps including:

Elevated company culture (88 percent)
Improved strategic decision making (62 percent)
Improved agility (58 percent)

From Chaos to Clarity

On April 21st at 11:00 a.m. ET, BizOps Coalition members will present the survey's findings and discuss the role BizOps can play in improving business outcomes in a virtual panel event via theCUBE titled, "Chaos to Clarity: BizOps for Digital Transformation." Interested parties can register here.

A report of the complete survey findings can be found at this link.

Embeddable infographic can be found here.

Methodology

Business and technology professionals at enterprise companies representing all seniority levels were invited to participate in a survey on their company's technology initiatives, technology selection processes, and BizOps. The survey was administered electronically, and participants were offered a token compensation for their participation. A total of 519 qualified participants from five continents completed the global survey. All participants were business or technology professionals.

ABOUT BIZOPS COALITION

The BizOps Coalition is focused on the advancement and adoption of the BizOps methodology. In addition, the group provides thought leadership, education and best practice BizOps strategies via the bizops.com platform. In October 2020, 12 members of the BizOps Coalition published the BizOps Manifesto, a framework outlining the principles and values of BizOps.

About Dimensional Research

Dimensional Research® provides practical market research for technology companies. We partner with our clients to deliver actionable information that reduces risks, increases customer satisfaction, and grows the business. Our researchers are experts in the applications, devices, and infrastructure used by modern businesses and their customers. For more information, visit www.dimensionalresearch.com.