The 2008 survey conducted by PA Consulting Group in partnership with recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash has found that innovation collaboration is key to maintaining competitive advantage through the current ecoconomic downturn.
This annual survey of over 360 UK CIOs and senior technology professionals revealed that an overwhelming majority (83%) of IT leaders believe their business colleagues expect them to deliver innovation to improve competitive advantage. The survey also showed that those innovation projects that generated the highest returns also featured more collaboration than average.
The survey, now in its tenth year, reveals that while innovation is seen as a route to drive competitive advantage and entry to new markets, company boards still rely heavily on technology to enhance operational efficiency, with 76% of respondents believing this was the most important business issue.
Interestingly, one of the most significant benefits of innovation is improvement to the internal processes, with two thirds (65%) of respondents achieving cost reductions or efficiency improvements.
Those IT functions that invested in innovation have reaped the benefits, with innovation projects believed to have been either reasonably or very successful 80 per cent of the time. Innovation also yielded a return on investment (ROI) of five% or more for over half (55%) of the survey respondents.
The amount invested in innovation also correlates to the chances of success. Across all respondents, the vast majority (75%) invested between zero and eight per cent of their IT budgets. However, of the group gaining a ROI of more than ten per cent, nearly half (46%) invested more than eight per cent of their IT budgets, with 33 per cent investing more than 15 per cent of IT budgets.
To request a copy of the full report, please contact ITmarketing@paconsulting.com
