A new KPMG and ServiceNow (NOW) survey revealed more than 93 percent of IT professionals said they believe the role of IT is changing across the enterprise.

Dan Kobialka, Contributing writer

July 30, 2014

2 Min Read
A new KPMG and ServiceNow NOW survey revealed more than 93 percent of IT professionals said they believe the role of IT is changing across the
A new KPMG and ServiceNow (NOW) survey revealed more than 93 percent of IT professionals said they believe the role of IT is changing across the enterprise.

A new survey from professional services giant KPMG and enterprise IT cloud company ServiceNow (NOW) has showed that more than 93 percent of IT pros said they believe the role of IT is changing from being an administrator of infrastructure to becoming a driver of enterprise services.

The survey also revealed IT teams are delivering automated enterprise-wide services through “self-service” portals that span IT, human resources, facilities and other departments.

“IT is changing for multiple reasons. Infrastructure is shifting to the cloud, so the traditional responsibility of managing it goes away or is greatly diminished. Applications are increasingly provided as a cloud-based service, so the responsibility there also shifts,” Steve Schick, ServiceNow’s senior director of corporate communications, told MSPmentor.

Other survey results included:

  • 98 percent of respondents said IT can leverage the familiar service model they work in to help improve the quality and efficiency of other internal service providers, such as HR and facilities, through automating their service delivery process.

  • 90 percent of respondents said many business processes commonly transacted through email could be better run by service automation.

  • Nearly 75 percent of respondents said at least half of their company’s business processes still rely on email instead of service automation.

  • 56 percent of respondents said HR was the best department outside of IT to start with in the implementation of service management. Facilities (23 percent) and purchasing (13 percent) came in second and third respectively as candidates for service management.

  • 56 percent of respondents said they plan to implement enterprise service management within 12 months.

“IT teams have an unprecedented opportunity to provide strategic value to the organization by creating and managing the systems that deliver enterprise-wide services,” Rick Wright, KPMG’s global cloud enablement leader, said in a prepared statement. “The advantage is that many IT departments already have implemented a systematic approach to delivering enterprise services with a proven IT service model.”

Researchers surveyed 275 IT professionals at ServiceNow’s Knowledge14 Conference in San Francisco.

The full report is available here.

Will the role of IT continue to change?

IT professionals are quickly becoming key players in their respective enterprises.

Seattle-based MSP Avanade, for example, recently found many IT professionals are taking on new roles.

“We believe that IT has an unprecedented opportunity to be involved in decision-making and take on a business advisory role,” Dean Olmstead, corporate vice president for Avanade’s Canada operating unit, said in a prepared statement.

Schick said he expects the role of IT professionals to evolve over the next few years as well.

“Change is starting to happen, and it will evolve over the next several years. Using an enterprise service management strategy is early in adoption,” he said.

Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].

About the Author(s)

Dan Kobialka

Contributing writer, Penton Technology

Dan Kobialka is a contributing writer for MSPmentor and Talkin' Cloud. In the past, he has produced content for numerous print and online publications, including the Boston Business Journal, Boston Herald and Patch.com. Dan holds a M.A. in Print and Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in English from Bridgewater State College (now Bridgewater State University). In his free time, Kobialka enjoys jogging, traveling, playing sports, touring breweries and watching football (Go Patriots!).  

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