88% of IT leaders unable to deliver on organisation's need for business agility

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A survey of senior IT decision-makers in large enterprises, commissioned by Coeus Consulting, found that IT leaders who can clearly demonstrate the cost and value of IT have greater influence over the strategic direction of the company and are best positioned to deliver business agility for digital transformation.

Consequently, cost transparency leaders are twice as likely to be represented at board level and thus are better prepared for external challenges such as changing consumer demand, GDPR and Brexit.

The survey of organisations with revenues of between £200m and £30bn revealed the importance of cost transparency within IT when it comes to forward planning and defining business strategy. Based on the responses of senior decision-makers (more than half of whom are C-level), the report identifies a small group of Cost Transparency Leaders who indicated that their departments: work with the rest of the organisation to provide accurate cost information; ensure that services are fully costed; and manage the cost life cycle.

88% of respondents were unable to indicate that they can demonstrate cost transparency to the rest of the organisation.

When compared to their counterparts, Cost Transparency Leaders are:

• Twice as likely to be represented at board level (100% v 54%)
• 1.5x more likely to be involved in setting business strategy (85% v 55%)
• Twice as likely to report that the business values IT's advice (100% v 52%)
• Twice as likely to demonstrate alignment with the business (90% v 50%)
• More than seven times as likely to link IT performance to genuine business outcomes (38% v 5%)

"This survey clearly reveals that cost transparency is a pre-requisite for IT leaders with aspirations of being a strategic partner to the business. Those that get it right are better able to transform the perception of IT from 'cost centre' to 'value centre' and support the constant demand for business agility that is typical of the modern, digital organisation. Only those that have achieved cost transparency in their IT operations will be able to deal effectively with external challenges such as Brexit and GDPR" said James Cockroft, Director at Coeus Consulting.

The 2018 Coeus Consulting survey was conducted in late 2017 with respondents from a wide range of industries.