Businesses are under pressure to improve and progress rapidly due to the current economic environment. IT departments are being tasked with enabling wide-ranging business transformations, such as improving processes and collaboration. However, IT is struggling to meet these demands due to the challenging and time-critical nature of the required changes and a lack of collaboration between business and IT. This disconnect between business ambition and IT's ability to deliver is known as the "Ambition-Maturity Gap".

1. Improving Business Operations:
The Ambition/Maturity Gap and
the need for BPM
A European perspective
A Vanson Bourne survey

2. Contents
Summary of key findings 1
Businesses are under pressure to improve and progress 1
IT departments are being tasked with enabling business transformation 1
IT departments are struggling to meet the needs of their businesses 1
The reasons for IT departments struggling to deliver as required are both
technical and organisational 2
The strained relationship between business and IT can have significant
consequences 2
Introduction 3
Objectives 3
Themes 3
What is the Ambition-Maturity Gap? 3
The demands faced by businesses and the pressures on IT 4
The need for change 4
Implementing change 5
The changes required are time-critical 5
The processes required are challenging 6
IT is struggling to meet the business need 7
Why is business change challenging and what are the
consequences? 9

3. The reasons 9
Bypassing the IT department 10
The Ambition-Maturity Gap 11
Further evidence of the Ambition/Maturity Gap 11
Bridging the Ambition/Maturity Gap 12
Appendix 14
Research Scope 14
About Vanson Bourne 14
About Cordys 14

4. Summary of key findings
Businesses are under pressure to improve Furthermore, the transformation required is
and progress far from simple.
Almost six in ten (57%) business decision-makers
Almost every business interviewed as part of
acknowledge that current business improvement
the survey process indicated that they are
projects are challenging.
operating under increased pressure, with
96% of business decision-makers reporting
Nearly all (92%) IT decision-makers describe the
that they have business priorities for 2012
achievement of business or process transformation
that have become a greater focus as a result
as challenging.
of the current economic and competitive
environment.
IT departments are struggling to meet the
This is having a significant impact on the demands needs of their businesses
of business decision-makers on the resources and
infrastructure available to them; 92% require Both business and IT decision-makers do not
improvements to the way their business functions. think the standard of IT that is currently
delivered is adequate.
IT departments are being tasked with
More than seven in ten (72%) business decision-
enabling business transformation makers believe that their business’s IT is NOT
facilitating their need to achieve their priorities for
All IT departments interviewed are feeling the 2012.
impact of the increased pressures under
which businesses are operating; all report Four in five (80%) IT decision-makers admit that
that they have been asked by areas of their their IT does not perform well in supporting or
business to make operational improvements. delivering certain functions key to an efficient,
competitive business.
Similarly, almost all business decision-makers are
aware of IT’s workload; 92% knowing of projects In addition, IT is not enabling the business
underway or planned, to improve operational transformation that is required.
effectiveness.
Two-thirds (65%) of business decision-makers
For the majority of businesses where report that their business’s IT is NOT helping them
improvements are planned or underway, achieve the business improvements they require.
there is an urgency attached to these tasks.
Similarly, two-thirds (67%) of IT decision-makers
Three-quarters (74%) of business decision-makers are of the opinion that their business colleagues do
describe exisitng or planned projects to improve not believe that their IT systems are helpful.
operational effectiveness as time-critical. Almost
six in ten (57%) IT decision-makers believe that
they are being asked to deliver IT projects more
quickly due to the current economic and
competitive environment.
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5. The reasons for IT departments struggling absorb and react to their needs in a timescale that
to deliver as required are both technical matches their expectation.
and organisational Almost half (45%) of IT decision-makers believe
that their business tends to set unrealistic
Business process transformation, although timescales, not appreciating the work involved.
time-critical, is not happening within the
required timescales. Almost six in ten (58%) business decision-makers
would NOT describe the process how the business
More than a third (36%) of business decision- and IT work towards business or process
makers who regard as challenging the task IT has transformation as a collaborative one.
been set of delivering business process
improvement or transformation, do so because Almost six in ten (57%) IT decision-makers would
their experience is that those tasks usually take NOT describe the process how the business and IT
longer than planned. work towards business or process transformation
as a collaborative one.
As evidence of this, more than half (52%) of IT
decision-makers report that business or process The strained relationship between business
transformation tasks take longer than planned. and IT can have significant consequences
Legacy IT systems restrict the process of
Where business departments feel that IT is
business transformation, making those
not meeting their needs, there are those who
transformational tasks more challenging.
are using the availability of cloud services to
More than a quarter (27%) of business decision- bypass their IT department, further
makers who regard as challenging the task IT has complicating IT’s task of managing business
been set of delivering business process processes and business use of IT.
improvement or transformation, do so because of
Almost a quarter (23%) of business decision-
the inflexibility/insularity of IT systems.
makers in organisations using cloud, are doing so
And in the IT department, more than four in ten to bypass their IT department.
(44%) IT decision-makers believe the
Nearly six in ten (56%) IT decision-makers believe
inflexibility/insularity of business systems causes
a part of their business has already adopted a
business or process transformation to be
cloud-based solution and bypassed the IT
challenging.
department.
The relationship between business and IT
More than four in ten (42%) IT decision-makers
departments in many businesses is not
who think that their business has bypassed the IT
conducive to achieving a common goal.
department through their use of cloud, believe that
Around one in six (17%) business decision-makers it is because they need the systems up and running
who regard as challenging the task IT has been set quicker than they would be otherwise.
of delivering business process improvement or
transformation, report that it's hard to get IT to
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6. Introduction
Objectives
The main objective of the research was to examine the demands and pressures under which
businesses and their IT departments operate and the impact on the relationship between them.
The research established a significant disconnect between the needs of businesses and IT’s current ability
to meet them. This disconnect has been defined as the Ambition/Maturity Gap.
Themes
There are four clear themes that run through the research:
 The demands faced by businesses, and the pressures on IT
 IT’s struggle to meet business needs
 The reasons for, and consequences of, IT’s struggle to meet business needs
 The Ambition/Maturity Gap
What is the Ambition-Maturity Gap?
The research demonstrates that whilst businesses are operating under intense pressure to
progress and change, and have the ambition and desire to implement this change, IT
departments are struggling to deliver.
Therefore, these is a disconnect between the ambition of businesses and IT’s ability to match
this ambition.
This disconnect can be described as the Ambition-Maturity gap.
However, in this report, there is also evidence that a small minority of IT departments are demonstrating
this maturity, to a greater or lesser extent, matching the desire and ambition of their business colleagues.
Significantly, this minority comprises businesses that have invested in Business Process Management
software.
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7. The demands faced by businesses and the
pressures on IT
The need for change This demonstrates the extent to which businesses
are having to adapt their goals and re-evaluate
Now is not a time for complacency or simply their plans in accordance with their circumstances;
doing things the way they have always been agility and speed of reaction are essential.
done. Therefore, businesses require a wide array of
improvements to the way they are operating,
The vast majority of the businesses surveyed are including employee productivity/empowerment and
working under pressures that have become more how information systems work together; indicating
intense due to the prevailing economic and the role of successful working relationships
competitive environment; 96% of businesses have between colleagues and also across corporate IT.
priorities for this year that have become more of a
focus for them because of the environment in
The improvements required by business
which they find themselves currently. The priorities
departments
that are most likely to have become more
important recently are that of improving customer Employee
productivity/empowerment
74%
service/customer engagement and cutting costs;
representative of recent business attitudes of
How the information systems you
needing to achieve more whilst spending less. use work together
71%
How departments, locations,
Businesses’ priorities for 2012 that have increased functions collaborate across the 68%
in importance business
Improving customer service/
customer engagement
70% Business processes 67%
Cutting costs 70% Access to the business information
required to make decisions
65%
Trying to be more productive and
efficient to "do more with less"
67%
Figure 2: The percentage of businesses that want to see
Looking to grow new revenue
65% improvements made to these areas of fundamental
streams in new markets
productivity
Getting products/services to
market quicker
62%
Dealing with an increased burden
of regulation and compliance
54%
Figure 1: The percentage of businesses where these
2012 business priorities have become more of a focus, as
a result of the current economic and competitive
environment
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8. Implementing change micro scale; it demonstrates how integral IT
departments are to achieving business success.
Business departments’ demands are having
an impact on the workload of the IT However, where all IT departments surveyed report
department as they are required to address that operational improvement projects are
the mounting the needs of their colleagues. underway or planned in the current year,
respondents in business departments are less
Every IT department surveyed reported that they certain that this is happening (figure 4). Evidently
have recently been tasked with enabling business departments are not always aware of the
operational improvement in at least one area of work being undertaken or planned by their IT
their business, be it improving business processes department, which suggests a lack of
(the most requested), or improving the availability communication between the two.
of corporate systems on mobile devices (the least
requested). Most, but not all business departments are aware
of the changes being implemented by IT
The operational improvements being implemented
by IT departments
Business processes 56%
Business processes 62% How departments, locations,
functions collaborate across the 49%
business
Cutting costs 58%
Employee
productivity/empowerment
43%
How departments, locations,
functions collaborate across the 49% Access to the business information
business
required to make decisions
40%
Access to the business information
required to make decisions
49% How the information systems you
use work together
34%
How the information systems you
use work together
48%
None of them 5%
Employee
productivity/empowerment
46%
Don't know 3%
Improving customer service/
customer engagement
35% Figure 4: The percentage of businesses reporting that
projects to improve operational effectiveness for the
Getting products/services to market
quicker
35% above areas are currently underway or planned for 2012
improvement in the areas above.
Getting corporate systems available
on mobile devices
27%
None 0%
The changes required are time-critical
An additional factor when it comes to the
Figure 3: The percentage of IT departments being
implementation of business and process
engaged by their busines to make operational
transformation is how quickly it is required.
improvement in the areas above.
Around three-quarters (74%) of the business
Figure 3 shows the wide variety of tasks being decision-makers surveyed describe as “time-
undertaken by IT departments at the request of critical” the projects, currently underway or
their business colleagues, on both a macro and planned, to improve operational effectiveness
within their company. This shows just how
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9. important and urgent they are, and gives a sense The processes required are challenging
of the pressure being placed on the IT departments
tasked with implementing them. In addition to being required quickly, these
essential changes are difficult to implement.
Business departments reporting improvement The majority of business departments recognise
projects to be time-critical that the changes they are asking IT departments to
How the information systems you make are challenging, with almost six in ten (57%)
use work together
74%
reporting as such.
Access to the business information
required to make decisions
72%
Business departments recognise the
Employee improvements they seek are challenging
productivity/empowerment
71%
How departments, locations,
functions collaborate across the 51%
business
Business processes 68%
Access to the business information
How departments, locations, required to make decisions
47%
functions collaborate across the 63%
business
How the information systems you
use work together
47%
Figure 5: The percentage of businesses describing the
operational effectiveness projects listed as time-critical
Business processes 47%
Employee
This pressure is also reported by IT departments 44%
productivity/empowerment
themselves, with nearly six in ten (57%) reporting
that they are being asked to deliver projects more Figure 7: The percentage of businesses that regard their
quickly because of the prevailing economic or improvement projects as challenging.
competitive enrvironment. Only around a quarter
(28%) of IT departments believe that they are Similarly, IT departments acknowledge the scale of
given sufficient time to accomplish the work they the task they face, with more than nine in ten
are set. (92%) admitting that the process of business or
process transformation can be challenging.
IT departments are being given less time
IT departments also find it challenging
Yes
15%
8%
Yes
No - they recognise the
timescales we suggest
28% 57%
No - they have always
No
wanted delivery to be fast
92%
Figure 6: Have prevailing economic or competitive
environments caused business departments to want IT Figure 8: Can achieving business or process
projects to be delivered more quickly? transformation be challenging?
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10. IT is struggling to meet the business need
The type and nature of the changes that are
being demanded, coupled with the fact that Businesses that report that IT is NOT helping
them make the changes they require
respondents from both camps describe the
process as challenging, makes it hardly a
Access to the business information
surprise that IT is struggling to deliver. required to make decisions
41%
Almost three-quarters (72%) of business decision- How departments, locations,
functions collaborate across the 41%
makers are currently of the opinion that their business
companies’ IT is NOT facilitating them in their aim
to achieve at least one of their business priorities Employee
38%
productivity/empowerment
for this year.
Business processes 38%
Businesses believe IT is NOT facilitating the
achievement of business priorities
How the information systems you
use work together
36%
Looking to grow new revenue
streams in new markets
46%
Figure 10: The percentage of businesses to answer that
Dealing with an increased burden their business’ IT is NOT a help when improving the
of regulation and compliance
41%
processes above.
Getting products/services to
market quicker
41%
Tellingly, IT departments are aware of these
Cutting costs 40% failings, with eight in ten (80%) reporting that
there is at least one area of IT’s support to the
Improving customer service/
37%
business that is NOT functioning well. When these
customer engagement
areas are so critical to the success of their
Trying to be more productive and business, this level of failure is difficult to justify.
efficient to "do more with less"
33%
The areas where they are most likely to be
Figure 9: The percentage of businesses to answer that
struggling are:
their business IT is NOT a facilitator in achieving the
business priorities above.
 Managing highly interactive, ad-hoc, unplanned
customer interactions (45%)
Furthermore, two-thirds (65%) of business
 Delivering a single view of a business “need”,
decision-makers believe that their company’s IT is
e.g. customer, risk, fraud, product (44%)
NOT helping them make the changes they require
to their business; changes that, as previously  Providing data to mobile devices (43%)
shown, are considered critical to the success of
their business.
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11. In additon, two-thirds (67%) of IT departments
think that the business systems they deliver are
NOT regarded as a help by the departments that
use them.
IT departments recognise their failings
IT is NOT seen by the
33% business as a help
67% IT is seen by the
business as a help
Figure 11: A business' IT systems can be a block to or a
facilitator of change. What is your impression of the
general opinion that the business has of its IT systems?
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12. Why is business change challenging and what
are the consequences?
The reasons
Why IT departments consider business
improvement projects to be challenging
Business decision-makers are not short of views on
why business or process transformation is Business or process
challenging; the main reason is that tasks take transformation tasks usually take 52%
longer than planned
longer than planned.
Business tends to set unrealistic
timescales (doesn't appreciate the 45%
work involved)
Why business departments consider business
improvement projects to be challenging
The inflexibility/insularity of
business systems
44%
Business or process
transformation tasks usually take 36%
longer than planned Business or process
transformation tasks usually run 43%
over budget
The inflexibility/insularity of
business systems
27%
The proposed solution is always
complex
20%
It's hard to get IT to absorb and
react to our needs in a timescale 17%
that matches our expectation. Figure 13: The reasons why IT departments consider
business improvement projects to be challenging
Business or process
transformation tasks usually run 15%
over budget
A lack of communication and a failure to appreciate
The proposed solution is always
5%
the needs of the business and the capabilities of IT
complex
are also evident in how they describe their working
relationship when it comes to business
Figure 12: The main reason why businesses consider
business improvement projects to be challenging
improvement projects.
IT decision-makers are most likely to report the Business departments would not describe the
process as collaborative
same reason as their business colleagues, that the
tasks take longer than planned. Their second-
ranked answer, that business departments set It is a collaborative process
29%
unrealistic timescales – illustrates a lack of
communication and visibility of these processes 42%
It is driven by IT
between business and IT.
29% It is tasked to IT by the business
Figure 14: Business decision-makers’ description of the
process of achieving improvement projects
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13. In the case of both business and IT decision-
makers, only a minority describes the process as
“collaborative”.
IT departments would not describe the
process as collaborative
It is a collaborative
19% process
43%
It is driven by IT
38%
It is tasked to IT by the
business
Figure 15: IT decision-makerss’ description of the
process of achieving improvement projects
Bypassing the IT department
A direct consequence of the apparent inability of IT,
the lack of communication between business and IT
and the resulting tension between the two, is that
business departments are seeking solutions to their
problems without the IT department’s involvement.
A quarter (23%)of business departments that use
cloud services, do so in order to bypass the IT
department. This creates an IT infrastructure that
is even more difficult to manage and integrate
effectively.
IT departments are very much aware of this issue;
more than half (56%) of IT decision-makers believe
that a part of their business has bypassed the IT
department by using cloud.
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14. The Ambition-Maturity Gap
This report demonstrates that:
A lack of maturity: the execution, running and
measurement of business processes
 Businesses are under pressure to create
change ... We build the processes into our
49%
applications/systems
 And have the ambition and desire to We have built our own workflow
implement this change … tool
26%
We have purchased or are looking
 IT departments are aware of this to use a Business Process 14%
requirement of their business … Management software
We don't execute processes in the
way you describe
11%
 Yet they are struggling to deliver…
 Causing additional complications. Figure 16: IT departments’ methods of executing,
running and measuring business processes
Therefore, there is a clear disconnect between
the ambition of businesses and the maturity
Similarly, fewer than one in ten (9%) IT decision-
of IT systems being provided to businesses.
makers appear to have the breadth of vision to
This disconnect has been defined as the
consider innovative solutions to the delivery of a
Ambition/Maturity Gap.
single view of informatin across their business.
Further evidence of the Ambition/Maturity
Gap A lack of maturity: the delivery of a single
view of information across the business
Demonstrating how IT departments are not
We have moved to a data
keeping pace with the business’s ambitions warehouse that contains this
44%
with their use of IT systems, is their approach information for the business to get
their single view
to a number of tasks and processes.
We have integrated together
For example, only around one in seven (14%) IT numerous systems and expose 30%
services to get this information
decision-makers use or plan to use Business
Process Management software to execute, run and
We don't deliver a single view in
measure business processes. the way you describe
17%
This means that six in seven businesses are
showing a reluctance to consider alternative We use or are planning to use
9%
Master Data Management (MDM)
solutions to the problems they are experiencing,
particularly the 11% who do not execute their
processes in such a manner at all. Other 1%
Figure 17: IT departments’ methods of delivering a
single view of information across their business
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15. The sense that only a minority of IT decision- Bridging the Ambition/Maturity Gap
makers are willing to adopt new solutions to tackle
their current challenges is reinforced when we look The small minority of IT departments using a
at how they model and represent business BPMS appear to be experiencing key benefits,
processes. illustrating that use of such a technology can
bridge the gap between business ambition
Only one in ten (9%) IT decision-makers are using and IT’s ability to deliver.
a Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) to
model and represent their business processes. Users of a BPMS are more likely to report that their
IT is performing well when compared to non-users.
A lack of maturity: the modelling and
representing of business processes BPMS users’ IT performs better than that of
We model them in Visio, non-users
PowerPoint
41%
33%
We document them and model
them in a format such as UML
21%
We model them in a Business 19%
Process Analysis tool such as Aris
18%
We use a Business Process
Management Suite (BPMS)
9%
BPMS non-users BPMS users
We model them on paper 7% Figure 19: The percentage of IT departments to report
that their IT is performing well in regard to systems they
It's not something we have
need.
attempted to do
4%
Figure 18: IT departments’ methods of representing and It comes as no surprise that having IT systems that
modeling their business processes are seen to perform better, and an IT department
that is perceived to have a greater ability to deliver
the systems needed, leads to IT departments being
better valued within their businesses.
BPMS users’ IT is more helpful than that of
non-users
53%
31%
BPMS non-users BPMS users
Figure 20: The percentage of IT departments to report
that IT is considered to be a help by their business.
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16. The use of a BPMS also improves the working
relationship between business and IT; users of a
BPMS are more likely to report that they have an
effective, collaborative and aligned business and IT
relationship.
BPMS-using IT departments have a better
relationship with business departments
83%
61%
BPMS non-users BPMS Users
Figure 21: The percentage of IT departments to report
that they have an effective, collaborative, aligned
business and IT relationship.
Use of a BPMS also provides specific IT benefits,
such as when handling complex system integration.
Users of a BPMS are three times more likely to
describe their handling of complex system
integration as excellent, than non-users.
BPMS-using IT departments are better
equipped when handling complex system
integration
83%
61%
BPMS non-users BPMS Users
Figure 22: The percentage of IT departments to report
that they they handle complex system integration
excellently.
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17. Appendix
Research Scope
In February 2012 Cordys appointed specialist technology market research house Vanson Bourne, to
conduct 650 interviews in Europe. An equal number of interviews were conducted with IT and business
decision-makers.
The targeted countries were as follows:
 UK
 France
 Germany
 Netherlands
These organisations have at least 500 employees and fall into the following sectors:
 Financial services
 Manufacturing
 Telecoms
About Vanson Bourne
Vanson Bourne is, a specialist research-led consultancy, carrying out user research within a technology
context. Vanson Bourne's clients range from start-ups to well-known companies that need expert guidance,
delivering robust and credible research-based analysis. More info: http://www.vansonbourne.com
About Cordys
Cordys is a global provider of software for business process innovation. Global 2000 companies worldwide
have selected Cordys to achieve performance improvements in their business operations, such as increased
productivity, reduced time to market and faster response to ever-changing market demands.
Headquartered in the Netherlands, Cordys has offices in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. More info:
http://www.cordys.com.
Copyright © 2012 Vanson Bourne and Cordys
May be used free of charge. Selling without prior written consent prohibited. Obtain permission before redistributing. In all cases this
notice must remain intact.
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