Kaseya announced the results of its annual IT operations benchmark survey aimed for IT groups.

The survey compares IT department practices based on their IT management maturity level. The IT management maturity model, developed by Kaseya specifically for small an midsize businesses (SMBs) and mid-market organisations, consists of five levels:

• Reactive: Responding to individual user challenges and requests
• Efficient: Having a systematic approach to solving known issues and dealing with daily tasks
• Proactive: Taking a proactive approach to IT management, automating repetitive tasks and many remedial actions
• Aligned: Tracking and managing against SLAs of availability and performance expectations
• Strategic: Achieving IT operational excellence and taking a strategic role in driving business innovation
  

  ‘Highlighting a steady trend’

The leading provider of IT management solutions for service providers found 83% of respondents classify their organisation as being ‘reactive, efficient, or proactive’ – highlighting a steady, growing trend towards IT organisation maturation.

46% of companies with higher maturity levels (strategic and aligned) have formal service-level agreements (SLAs) in place that are mandatory guidelines.

In comparison, 21% of all respondents have SLAs in place, and less than 10% of ‘reactive’ companies have SLAs.

Most respondents held the CIO in high regard, with 81% of companies within the higher maturity levels (strategic and aligned) indicating that the head of the IT department influences C-level decision-making within the company.

In contrast, only 76% of less mature companies believe IT has that level of influence.

‘Embracing modern tactics’

Taunia Kipp, global senior vice president of marketing at Kaseya, revealed: “One of the most important findings in our annual survey of SMB and midmarket enterprises and their IT practices is a significant year-over-year increase in the number of what we call ‘mature’ organisations.

“As companies of all sizes embrace modern tactics and leverage strategic new technology, such as the cloud, predictive analytics and advanced security, they become more ‘mature’ as an IT organisation as a result.

“This survey ‘opens the curtains’ offering visibility into the inner-workings of a variety of IT organisations-a strategic advantage to any sized company that would like to learn why some IT organisations succeed while others are more reactive.”

The survey is based on input from more than 900 respondents, globally.

Written from press release by Leah Alger