Legacy core systems and overburdened IT departments are causing business operations executives to rely on manual processes. TrackVia surveyed over 200 operations executives to better understand why this problem persists, and to uncover what businesses need to escape the “I Give Up Gap.
While digital transformation initiatives are at the forefront of many operations executives’ minds, finding and implementing solutions that work across the enterprise has proven to be a bigger challenge than many realized. A new report from TrackViaOpens a new window , a low-code application platform, highlights the difficulty operations executives are having acquiring enterprise software applications that can help digitize and automate their organizations’ workflows.
The responses from 200 operation executives (chief operating officers, senior vice presidents of operations, etc.) from multiple industries illustrate the major roadblocks holding companies back from digitizing their processes and reaching their full potential.
The challenge to digitize is two-fold — organizations are relying on manual processes to augment their legacy core systems (90%) in order to manipulate, analyze and share their critical data, as well as unable to rely on their overburdened internal IT departments to create solutions.
Working With IT – Long Lines and Small Budgets
One of the primary challenges business operations executives face when working with IT to build applications is the time required for IT to process requests, build, test, and then deploy solutions. Overburdened IT departments simply don’t have the resources to keep pace with demand.
- 50% say it takes 6 months or longer for IT to consider their request for an application
- 58% say it takes another 6 months or longer for IT to develop, test and deploy an application
- 52% say it takes several weeks for IT to make changes to an application that’s currently in production
Going through internal IT departments to develop applications can take a year or more and is causing operations executives to avoid submitting IT requests altogether. Operations leaders know that IT departments simply don’t have the resources to effectively digitize all business processes. As a result, 62% say they’ve wanted to submit a request to IT but have decided against it.
The High Cost of Sticking with Manual Processes
According to the report, operations executives are still clinging to manual processes when they can’t get bespoke solutions from the IT department. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they have continued using their legacy processes after deciding not to go with IT’s help – falling back into time-consuming solutions of entering data into spreadsheets and databases manually.
The on-the-ground business impact of sticking to manual processes is significant, according to respondents:
- 62% said it slows down overall performance
- 48% said it increases overall costs to the business
Digitizing Without IT
When working with IT is prohibitive, 46 percent of operations executives went it alone to secure applications. But similar to the use of manual processes, digitizing without internal IT exposes businesses to a host of problems:
- One-third (36%) said their solution couldn’t meet their mobile requirements
- One-third (31%) said it required additional professional services
- One-third (31%) said it couldn’t deliver the customization they needed
The “I Give Up Gapâ€
On one hand, manual processes like spreadsheets, email and paper are inefficient, error-prone, and cumbersome. On the other, there are inflexible, costly, and risky solutions associated with digitizing with or without IT’s involvement.
Between these two imperfect solutions, operations executives are left stranded between yesterday’s manual methods and digitized solutions that are just out of reach.