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It appears that more IT projects than ever are being built on a foundation of wishful thinking. A survey of 650 IT decision makers published this week by MuleSoft, a provider of an application programming interface (API) management platform, discovers that two-thirds of IT decision makers admit to being unable to deliver all projects asked of them last year.

To make matters even more challenging, the number of projects on average has grown 27 percent at a time when the overall IT budget continues to remain static, the report finds.

More troubling still, the respondents say collectively four out of five businesses (81 percent) are expected to see a negative impact on revenue in the next 12 months if they fail to complete digital transformation initiatives. Not surprisingly, the report suggests that IT organizations are not likely to accomplish that goal because of the integration challenges faced. Organizations on average are employing 1,020 applications across their business. But on average, only 29 percent of these applications are currently integrated or connected to another application.

The report goes on to suggest that when it comes to application development many IT organizations are not especially well suited to the task. A full 93 percent of respondents admit that their application development process could be more efficient.  In addition, just a third of internal IT software assets and components are available for developers to reuse. In fact, 83 percent admit their organization does not always reuse software assets when it comes to developing new products and services.

How this impacts MSPs

From a managed service provider (MSP) perspective the report makes it clear most IT organizations are simply too challenged keeping existing IT running to focus on innovation. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) spend most of their time on “running the business” versus focusing on innovation and development projects. Given the pressure IT leaders are under to deliver on new projects, it’s clear they are going to be more open to a conversation concerning how MSPs can more cost-effectively offload a wide variety of IT tasks.

IT organizations have always been under pressure to deliver. But as the awareness of the need to become a truly digital business has increased the pressure on IT organizations has been compounded. Business executives often engage in fanciful notions without thinking through the details. The result is a lot of corporate missives that put IT organizations between a rock and a hard place. They are expected to enable the business to transform, while simultaneously reducing overall costs. The percentage of IT leaders that can pull off that trick without relying more on external service providers for help is tiny.

MSPs might want to start taking those IT leaders out for a meal to commiserate. Truth is most of them feel isolated. Most of the people they report to don’t really understand the intricacies of IT. It’s often difficult for IT leaders to find someone to bounce ideas off that has the appropriate level of IT experience. MSPs that have worked with multiple organizations have a wealth of experience that savvy IT leaders will find invaluable. The challenge for MSPs is finding a way to show those IT leaders they do indeed feel their pain.

Photo:  frankie’s / Shutterstock.


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Mike Vizard

Posted by Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard has covered IT for more than 25 years, and has edited or contributed to a number of tech publications including InfoWorld, eWeek, CRN, Baseline, ComputerWorld, TMCNet, and Digital Review. He currently blogs for IT Business Edge and contributes to CIOinsight, The Channel Insider, Programmableweb and Slashdot. Mike blogs about emerging cloud technology for Smarter MSP.

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