A survey, conducted by IT service group Capgemini among IT executives with budgets in excess of E100 million a year, found that 93% agreed that providing IT agility is critical to the business. But almost 40% felt that the IT function within their business was not delivering the level of agility the business required.

A further 30% of respondents said that they do not believe that IT operations can keep the pace of the changing business landscape.

The survey also underscored the widely-held belief the ability to enable agility begins with the employees: People are viewed as being twice as critical as the actual processes and systems that surround their activities.

Another key factor in an organisation’s ability to deliver agility is cost, the research showed, with 42% of IT leaders citing cost constrains as a barrier to agility. However, while all respondents agreed that creating an agile business requires investment, they also recognised that that investment would be met with a return through the establishment of competitive differentiation and increased business performance.

Outsourcing is also cited as a consideration. While only one in three respondents named outsourcing of parts of the IT function as critical to business agility, the representatives of organisations where this had been implemented successfully have experienced a higher level of business agility than elsewhere.