Research reveals need for greater collaboration between teams

Dynatrace has published the findings of an independent global survey of 176 CIOs in the financial services sector, revealing that their IT teams are struggling to keep up with digital transformation. The pandemic has forced financial services organisations to urgently pivot their go-to-market strategies and accelerate digital innovation. However, the traditional IT operating models commonly used within financial services organisations are proving ineffective at keeping up with their modern cloud-native architectures. For example, siloed teams and multiple monitoring and management solutions are hampering IT’s ability to drive value for the business. The report, “How to transform the way teams work to improve collaboration and drive better business outcomes,” is available for download here.

The survey reveals:

• 91% of CIOs in financial services organisations say digital transformation has already accelerated, and 57% predict it will continue to speed up.

• 90% of CIOs say IT’s ability to maximise value for the business is hindered by challenges, including IT and business teams working in silos.

• 66% of CIOs say they are fed up with the need to piece together data from multiple tools to assess the impact of IT investments on the business.

• 43% of CIOs say limited collaboration between teams disrupts IT’s ability to respond quickly to sudden changes in business needs.

• 16% of an IT team’s time is spent in meetings with the business to identify the causes of and solutions to problems. This issue alone costs financial services organisations an average of $1.7 million annually due to lost productivity.

“Consumers are relying on online and mobile financial services now more than ever. As a result, digital capabilities have become critical to driving revenues and enhancing customer relationships for banks, fintechs, insurers, and other financial services providers,” said Abdi Essa, Regional Vice President, UK&I, Dynatrace. “However, the pressure that their IT teams are under to meet this demand for faster innovation and improved financial services experiences is outstripping what they can deliver. Siloed teams, a lack of cross-team collaboration, and the absence of a single source of truth all hinder IT departments from achieving business goals.”

Additional findings from the report include:

• 44% of financial services CIOs say they have limited data and visibility into users’ perspectives on how digital services are performing.

• Only 18% of financial services organisations have a single platform that enables cross-team collaboration and a true understanding of IT’s business impact.

• 44% of CIOs say IT and business teams work in silos.

• 40% of CIOs say limited cross-team collaboration makes it more difficult to identify the severity of an issue and minimise its overall business impact.

• To ease the burden on IT and avoid stretching limited resources beyond their limits, financial services organisations are adopting new practices that rely on breaking down silos:

o 52% are adopting BizDevOps

o 49% are adopting Autonomous Cloud Operations

o 48% are adopting NoOps

“Often, within financial services organisations, different teams use various tools to monitor separate areas of the business, from user experience, to infrastructure, and application performance,” added Essa. “The result is that there’s no single and consistent source of truth, making it difficult for teams to understand their data, identify issues, and collaborate effectively. To maintain productivity and drive the business forward, financial services organisations must transform the way their teams work. Breaking down silos between IT and the business will be key to bringing teams together with a single, unifying language that supports collaboration and helps drive greater value for the business and its customers. Empowering teams with a single platform that delivers precise, real-time insights will drive shared goals and improve the outcomes of digital innovation in financial services.”