Business Impact of IT Incident Communications: A
BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 Introduction For a majority of businesses today the IT department manages numerous mission-critical processes that support core business operations. The findings in this report reinforce the fact that businesses are negatively impacted within a few minutes of an IT outage. Yet these findings are alarming in that locating the right person to investigate an IT issue often takes as long as, or longer than, resolving the issue. While IT searches for the right individual, the business is often suffering. This research project investigates how IT professionals actually respond to the IT alerts and communications they receive, and what effect they have on issue resolution. Better alerting and communications management can reduce IT downtime and business impact significantly. With the growing reliance on digital business processes and internet enabled devices, the IT team must be ready to assume an even larger role. A better IT alert and communications solution will provide immediate benefits while providing a platform for IT’s growing role and responsibilities. Key Findings • The business is affected often before the right individual can even be identified -- 45% Stated the business is negatively affected if IT is down fifteen minutes or less -- 60% Required more than fifteen minutes just to identify who should respond to an IT issue -- 47% Revealed finding the right person takes as long as, or longer than, resolving the issue • IT professionals enable and protect the business today but are willing to do more -- 90% Stated IT can offer more strategic services to the business -- 74% Indicate IT expertise should be leveraged for other automated systems -- 77% Acknowledge that the business thinks IT is too slow in resolving key issues • Improved IT Alerting Systems will benefit the business -- 91% Indicated that poor incident communication increases downtime -- 87% Indicated that guaranteed alert delivery would accelerate issue resolution -- 85% State issue resolution would be accelerated with single click conferencing Sponsored by www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 Detailed Findings Nearly half (45%) of all participants surveyed indicated that their business was impacted if IT was down just fifteen minutes or less. But a full 17% indicated that their business was negatively affected the instant IT had any service interruptions. For your company, approximately how many minutes of IT down9me can occur before the business is nega9vely impacted? 29% 30% 25% 20% 17% 15% 17% 16% 11% 10% 4% 5% 0% Zero, our business is instantly affected by down>me 1 – 5 minutes 6 – 15 minutes 15 – 60 minutes 1 – 3 hours 3 – 6 hours More than 6 hours Regardless of ITs’ effort to quickly resolved issues, 77% of IT professionals surveyed have been told that IT is too slow to resolve key issues that are likely impacting the business. Have you ever received feedback from business stakeholders that IT takes too long to resolve key issues? No 23% Yes 77% Page 3 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 When participants were asked how long it takes to just identify who the right individual is to respond to a particular issue, 60% indicated fifteen minutes or more. That means for most companies their business is being negatively affected before IT has even identified who should respond to a particular problem. When IT issues arise, approximately how long does it take to determine who the right individual is to resolve the issue, contact them, and have them respond? 40% 37% 34% 35% 30% 25% 20% 16% 15% 10% 6% 5% 5% 0% Our process is instantaneous 1 – 15 minutes 15 – 60 minutes 1 – 3 hours 3 – 6 hours 2% More than 6 hours 47% of IT professionals shared that it actually takes as long as, or longer, to identify the right individual as it does to resolve the actual problem. So nearly half the time it takes to mitigate any IT issue is just finding the right person, and meanwhile the business is being impacted. In your experience, which is harder, fixing the IT problem or finding the right person to fix the problem? They both take about the same :me 22% It takes longer to find and assign the right person 25% Solving the actual issue takes the most :me 53% Page 4 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 91% of IT professionals stated that poor incident communication increases downtime. A key to faster issue resolution and greater uptime is faster identification of the proper IT resources to resolve issues. In your opinion, is the length of down4me increased by poor incident communica4on and aler4ng? No 9% Yes 91% Over the past many years the role of IT has expanded from basic system support to enabling the business to facilitating online business, while supporting employees’ numerous devices. Should the role of IT continue to broaden? 90% of the participants think so, and stated they should provide additional strategic services beyond classical support of IT infrastructure and applications. In your opinion should IT provide other strategic services to the business beyond maintaining IT hardware and applica8ons? No 10% Yes 90% Page 5 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 IT teams often work with very complex automated systems, and 74% of participants said IT’s experience with automated systems should be leveraged with other automated systems. With the rapid migration of devices, and machines and systems also connecting via the internet or a network, IT believes its experience will benefit the business by expanding its role even further. In many businesses, equipment and systems, such as manufacturing equipment, assembly lines, delivery dispatch, internet-‐enabled devices and more are now computerized. Should IT’s role include running and maintaining those systems? No, IT should just be responsible for IT infrastructure and the apps running on it 26% Yes, IT has experience with sophis3cated systems and their exper3se should be leveraged 74% For businesses, digital data has firmly replaced traditional brick and mortar assets as being the most valuable. 80% of respondents indicated that loss of digital data would have a more significant impact than the loss of buildings, vehicles or goods. Which of the following would have the most significant business impact to your company? Loss of a physical assets such as buildings, vehicles, goods, etc.. 20% Loss of digital data 80% Page 6 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 IT is clearly aware of the high business value digital data represents, as IT professionals indicated that 73% of security resources are focused on securing digital data. The findings back this up. 45% think digital data has more security measures dedicated to it – more than twice those focused on physical assets (27%). Thus the IT team not only keeps businesses’ critical systems up, but must provide resources and expertise to protect those systems and the data within them. In your opinion, what has more security measures protec3ng it? Physical assets such as buildings, vehicles, goods, etc.. 27% Digital data 45% They are about the same 28% Given the high importance of IT responsiveness to issues, it was shocking to see that 41% of IT professionals have ignored IT alerts and communications. This may be one key factor in why the business is impacted and a delay occurs between IT issue discoveries and IT resolution efforts. Have you ever ignored a call or a message regarding an IT issue that you should have responded to? Yes 41% No 59% Page 7 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 81% of the survey participants shared that they would respond to an IT alert if it was specifically directed to them. This finding combined with the preceding information provides evidence that IT alert systems that spam email to large numbers of individuals are often ignored. But targeted alerts generate better response rates, likely resulting in faster issue resolution, less downtime and reduced impact to the business. If an IT alert was sent only to you, would you be more inclined to respond to the IT call or message? No 19% Yes 81% 81% of IT professionals indicated they are more likely to respond to an IT alert if failing to do so would notify their boss. This is further evidence that spamming team members with IT alerts reduces accountability and presents greater opportunity to deny or defer responsibility. Would you be more likely to respond to an IT alert if you knew that your boss would be no8fied if you failed respond? No 19% Yes 81% Page 8 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 The value of accountability not only affects the individual but the team as a whole. 87% of participants stated that knowing that alerts were in fact delivered and that someone responded would accelerate issue resolution. This finding indicates that a trusted system is needed to ensure individuals are reached and to only notify additional resources if primary individuals did not respond. Would issue resolu+on be faster if an IT alert system could guarantee the alert message was received and ensure the recipient responded? No, knowing that someone received and responded to an alert message would not make the team more efficient. 13% Yes, knowing that someone received and responded to an alert message would make resolu7on more efficient. 87% Part of the challenge with IT alerts and mass notifications is that often those notified had personal events that may compromise their responsiveness. A dynamic and automated system that could be updated based on team availability could generate better response by IT professionals, leading to better accountability and faster resolutions and minimized business impact. Where is the most inconvenient place you have received an IT emergency alert? “I was at the hospital with a family emergency” “At a funeral” “Middle of the night” “Christmas” “On a holiday” “During birth of our child” “At Disneyland” “While taking a shower, in bathroom or having sex” “I was at a wedding and I was a groomsman” “At church” “In the outback camping, I was three hours away from a computer” Page 9 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 85% of IT professionals showed that issue resolution would be accelerated by the ability to have single click conferencing. But the ability to quickly enable collaboration of the right individuals will have a positive impact on issue remediation. If an IT alert message had the op2on with a single click to instantly ini2ate a conference call with all the right individuals, would that accelerate issue resolu2on? No 15% Yes 85% Summary Businesses trust IT to keep critical systems running smoothly while securing highly valued data. But when issues arise business stakeholders overwhelmingly feel that IT isn’t resolving them fast enough. Furthermore, the business is being negatively impacted often before the right individual can even be found to begin resolution. This is not lost on the IT team who indicated that current IT alerting processes and solutions are not effective nor do they drive accountability. But IT’s role has expanded significantly over the years, and IT professionals remain willing to do even more. But that growing role puts even more emphasis on IT’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to issues. Fast issue remediation will require that the right people be contacted efficiently based on availability and expertise. This may indicate that the communications management alerting systems that have served IT in the past may simply not be able to support IT’s growing role and that a new solution is required. Page 10 www.dimensionalresearch.com © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 Survey Methodology IT professionals from an independent database were invited to participate in a web survey on the topic of mobile device apps. A total of 304 respondents across Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States completed the survey. Roles ranged from front line professionals to IT executives. The survey was administered electronically and participants were offered a token compensation for their participation. Participant companies provided a good distribution from large enterprises with over 10,000 employees to mediumsized businesses with over 1,000 employees. A solid range of industries were also represented with the technology and financial services segments leading the way. Loca%on Role within IT Australia or New Zealand 3% Mexico, Central America, Asia or South America 5% 2% I am an IT execu;ve 17% Company Size More than 10,000 36% I am a front-‐line IT or technology professional 39% Europe, Middle East, or Africa 12% I manage a team of IT or technology professionals 44% United States or Canada 78% 1,000 -‐ 5,000 44% 5,000 -‐ 10,000 20% Company Industry Technology 17% Financial Services 15% Manufacturing 13% Healthcare 13% Educa>on 11% Services 7% Retail 6% Energy and U>li>es 5% Telecommunica>ons 4% Transporta>on 3% Hospitality 2% Non-‐profit 1% Other 4% 0% Page 11 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% www.dimensionalresearch.com 12% 14% 16% 18% © 2015 Dimensional Research. All Rights Reserved. BUSINESS IMPACT OF IT INCIDENT COMMUNICATIONS A GLOBAL SURVEY OF IT PROFESSIONALS Dimensional Research | March 2015 About Dimensional Research Dimensional Research® provides practical marketing research to help technology companies make their customers more successful. Our researchers are experts in the people, processes, and technology of corporate IT and understand how IT organizations operate. We partner with our clients to deliver actionable information that reduces risks, increases customer satisfaction, and grows the business. For more information visit www.dimensionalresearch.com. About xMatters xMatters’ cloud-based communications solutions enable any business process or application to trigger two-way communications (text, voice, email, SMS, etc.) throughout the extended enterprise during time-sensitive events. With over a decade of experience in rapid communication, xMatters serves more than 1,000 leading global firms to ensure business operations run smoothly and effectively during incidents such as IT failures, product recalls, natural disasters, dynamic staffing, service outages, medical emergencies and supply-chain disruption. xMatters is headquartered in San Ramon, CA with additional offices in London and Sydney. 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