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Doing more with less (or the same) is the battle cry of organisations in the downturn, yet not all are taking the same approach. Some are thriving, and some are hiding from the challenges and opportunities the current environment presents.

Here at BMC Software we recently commissioned a survey which questioned board-level executives across a range of large European companies with an average turnover of €2 billion. The aim was to gain an objective view on board-level sentiments towards IT spend and innovation.

The results were surprising. Despite all the talk of doom and gloom and cutting spend, respondents were very positive about the wider role IT can play in terms of the recovery, saying that innovation is still very top of mind across all groups. The majority see the need to innovate in good and bad times (67 per cent in the UK), and many companies highlighted their belief that sustained IT investment is strongly linked to overall business performance.

However, there is a gap between the intent to innovate and the ability to translate that intent into something the boardroom will listen to — and take action on.

We dubbed the group of companies that seems to be best at linking IT innovation and business performance ‘Thrivers’. Comprising 25 per cent of respondents, Thrivers have placed innovation at the heart of their organisations despite the gloom, suggestive of a positive relationship between IT and the board.

Companies like these are culturally open to new ideas. They have adopted technologies such as automation and virtualisation for longer-term growth, whilst simultaneously meeting an immediate business requirement to cut cost. By automating, IT firms are able to re-deploy talent to strategic projects by streamlining processes. The survey shows that 77 per cent of companies are already realising cost savings from IT a year into the downturn. This is a powerful board-level conversation.

The research shows that where the board has seen these benefits, 60 per cent of companies are reinvesting savings back into the business in order to perpetuate a continual cycle of improvement.

Yet, what I also found surprising from this research is the number of businesses that are not taking advantage of the recession to assess longer-term opportunities. Dubbed ‘Hiders’, 41 per cent are going about business as usual, and do not view IT as a strategic investment. They aren’t cutting cost, but they aren’t seeing an opportunity to streamline and innovate during the recession either.

The survey, combined with previous research from the London School of Economics and McKinsey Consulting, suggests that companies who do invest in strategic IT projects to support the business (the Thrivers in our survey) will likely weather the economic downturn better, and will be better equipped to take advantage of the upturn for true business advantage.

It is undoubtedly true that we have all faced challenging times over the last 18 months, but the smart companies have not abandoned innovation. They are reinvesting cost savings into projects that will simultaneously drive down costs in other business areas and cut out routine tasks. These companies also know how to speak the language of the boardroom, which is becoming increasingly important for CIOs and IT managers around the world.


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