MuleSoft, a provider of integration and API platform, has reported that integration challenges continue to be a major roadblock for Digital Transformation initiatives. MuleSoft’s ‘2021 Connectivity Benchmark Report’ found that IT teams are spending over a third of their time on integration projects and custom integrations are costing large enterprises on average US$3.5 million each in annual labour. As digital initiatives accelerate, integration has emerged as a critical factor in determining the success and speed of Digital Transformation across industries.
“Organisations across industries have experienced a rapid shift toward interacting with customers and employees through digital channels,” said Brent Hayward, CEO, MuleSoft. “Although most organisations are prioritising digital initiatives, such as launching an e-commerce platform or increasing worker productivity, the research shows that data silos continue to hinder their capabilities to deliver on these key initiatives. Companies that empower their IT and business teams to easily integrate apps and data will be able to unlock the full capacity within their organisation to drive innovation at scale and gain competitive edge.”
Based on a global survey of 800 CIOs and IT decision makers, the ‘2021 Connectivity Benchmark Report’ also highlights new challenges and opportunities for businesses as they navigate a digital-first world:
- Increased demands pressuring businesses to deliver digital faster: The last 12 months have seen a profound shift in the way people work and how organisations operate. Employees and customers alike want seamless digital experiences and expect organisations to deliver on these experiences, faster.
- New initiatives to enable success from anywhere: This past year, organisations relied on IT to support a rapid shift to remote working and the need for increased productivity and efficiency. Migrating apps to the cloud (51%), enabling remote working (48%), and automating business processes (47%) were cited as the key initiatives that organisations are focusing on for 2021. They were closely followed by using IT to create a safe working environment, modernising legacy systems, and integrating SaaS apps (each 45%).
- When demand surpasses supply: Demands on IT have increased massively. Organisations asked IT to deliver on average 30% more projects this year, a number that is constantly growing year-over-year (315 projects in 2021 compared to 242 projects in 2020). Only 37% of respondents say they were able to deliver all IT projects last year (compared to 41% the previous year).
- Go digital or get left behind: More than three-quarters (77%) of organisations say a failure to complete Digital Transformation initiatives will impact revenues over the next year.
- The cost of ‘keeping the lights on’: IT is spending over two-thirds of their time (68%) on running the business, leaving little time for innovation and development of new projects.
