SAN FRANCISCO, July 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MuleSoft, provider
of the world's #1 integration and API platform, today reported that
70% of automation initiatives are being hindered by security
concerns and data silos, as organizations increasingly look to
automation to improve efficiency and productivity. However,
MuleSoft's IT and Business Alignment Barometer also revealed
opportunities for companies to overcome these challenges and enable
faster innovation across their organizations. IT and business teams
working closely together can shrink or even eliminate organization
silos, significantly reducing time to market. The report shows that
almost 9 in 10 (87%) say IT and business alignment has improved
over the last 12 months leading to a number of benefits, including
improved collaboration (64%), operational efficiency (58%), and
better customer experience (54%).
"IT and business alignment is no longer 'a nice to have' – it's
essential to meeting the urgency of today's digital imperatives,"
said Brent Hayward, CEO, MuleSoft.
"Delivering innovation fast requires reusable, secure assets the
business can self-serve to quickly launch new digital experiences,
products and services. As IT and business teams drive automation
initiatives forward, empowering more people - developers and
non-developers alike - to connect data and apps in a secure, yet
frictionless way will be key to organizations' future success."
Based on a global study of 2,400 IT decision makers (ITDMs) and
business decision makers (BDMs), the MuleSoft IT and Business
Alignment Barometer also highlights organizations' business
priorities and challenges over the next 12 months:
Digital imperatives increase automation adoption
In an
all-digital, work-from-anywhere world, it's never been more
important to sense and respond to changing market dynamics — and
the needs of customers and employees — with speed, agility, and
efficiency. Automation has become a rising focus for many
organizations to drive convenience, speed, and cost reductions.
Organizations report that:
- Operational efficiency is top of mind for businesses:
Improving operational efficiency (54%), creating better connected
customer experiences (50%), improving productivity (49%), becoming
more agile for change (48%), and becoming more data-driven (45%)
are organizations' top five business priorities.
- There's automation everywhere: 95% of organizations have
implemented or are in the process of implementing automation
initiatives, such as streamlined employee onboarding processes, to
improve productivity. 93% see automation as a means to create
better connected customer experiences and to improve operational
efficiency.
- IT leads automation initiatives: Just over two-thirds
(67%) of organizations say their automation initiatives are IT-led
(i.e., driven by the IT department and the technology that is
available).
Security concerns and data silos slow down business
priorities
Security and governance, along with data
distributed across multiple apps and platforms, continue to pose a
challenge to automation initiatives, and hinder innovation.
- Security concerns slowing down the pace of innovation:
The majority (87%) of IT and business leaders say that security and
governance concerns are slowing down the pace of innovation.
- Disparate systems cause security headaches: Almost three
quarters (73%) of organizations say the integration of disparate
systems has increased their concerns around data security and
governance – 31% say it had 'significantly' increased
concerns.
- Organizations still wary of empowering non-technical
users: Most organizations recognize the need to empower
business teams to help take the operational strain off IT. However,
the majority remain wary about the security implications; 87%
admitted security concerns were holding them back at least to some
degree from empowering non-technical users to integrate data
sources.
Collaborative innovation model for IT and business drives
agility
To overcome integration challenges and become more agile, IT and
business teams need to work together to co-create value and keep
pace with the speed of digitalization. IT teams can focus on
producing secure and governed reusable assets, and empower business
teams to integrate and self-serve these IT-approved assets to
deliver innovation faster.
- COVID-19 has sparked a new focus on business agility:
More than three quarters (78%) of organizations say improving
business agility to remain competitive will be extremely important
in the future. This is a notable increase from 68% who said it was
a focus pre-pandemic.
- IT increasingly drives business outcomes: The majority
(88%) of business and IT leaders agree that IT has become even more
important in driving business outcomes in the last 12 months.
Nearly half (48%) say it has become 'significantly' more
important.
- Value of integration is recognized by the business:
Almost nine in 10 (87%) BDMs feel that improved integration will
help them meet their business objectives – 39% say it would help
them "a lot."
- Drive agility by empowering business users to create
connected experiences: The vast majority (86%) of organizations
agree business outcomes would improve if business users were able
to use low or no code to securely connect apps and data on their
own to create connected experiences. This capability would enable
organizations to improve productivity (52%), become more
data-driven (48%), improve operational efficiency (48%), create
better connected customer experiences (46%), and become more agile
for change (45%).
For more insights, view the full report here.
Methodology
MuleSoft's IT and Business Alignment
Barometer report, in partnership with Coleman Parkes Research,
surveyed 2,400 IT and business decision makers across the globe
regarding their business priorities over the next 12 months, and
the technological and operational challenges they face making them
a reality. An online survey was conducted between April and
May 2021 across the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Hong
Kong, Japan, and
Thailand. Only suitable candidates
(as defined below) participated in the survey and were verified by
Coleman Parkes Research using a rigorous, multi-level screening
process. Respondents are all IT decision or business decision
makers — those who hold a managerial position or above. All
respondents work at an organization in the public or private sector
with at least 1,000 employees.
About MuleSoft, a Salesforce company
MuleSoft,
provider of the world's #1 trusted integration and API platform,
empowers any company to quickly unlock and integrate their apps and
data to create connected experiences, faster. For more information,
visit: https://www.mulesoft.com.
About Salesforce
Salesforce, the global CRM leader, empowers companies of every size
and industry to digitally transform and create a 360° view of their
customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM),
visit: www.salesforce.com.
MuleSoft is a registered trademark of MuleSoft, Inc., a
Salesforce company. All other marks are those of respective
owners.
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SOURCE MuleSoft