Capgemini Survey Finds Enterprises Reaping Profits From IT Automation

Organizations that are leading the pack in investing in IT automation technology to improve application testing and deployment, IT configuration and infrastructure provisioning, are reaping higher profits and other tangible benefits, according to a recent survey from Capgemini. The survey report, titled “The Automation Advantage,” places companies into categories of “fast movers”—the top 20 percent of businesses conducting advanced automation deployments—and “followers,” or those at the earliest stages of automation adoption. Fast movers are seeing comparatively greater agility along with faster product and services delivery, according to the report. This slide show presents highlights from the report, with charts provided courtesy of Capgemini.

Nearly three-quarters of automation “fast mover” companies have automated their application testing, but less than one-fifth of “follower” companies have. Just over seven of ten “fast movers” have automated their application deployments, while only 20 percent of “followers” have.

About seven of ten fast movers have automated their configuration management, compared to only 20 percent of followers. Similarly, 68 percent of fast movers have automated their infrastructure provisioning, as opposed to just 21 percent of followers. .

Three-quarters of survey respondents rated as fast movers said automation has boosted their revenues and profitability. But no more than one-half of respondents rated as followers claim the same.

The survey findings reveal that 87 percent of respondents at fast mover organizations said automation has led to faster speed of product/services delivery, while 61 percent of those at follower companies said their organization were gaining this benefit. Four of five of those at fast movers said automation has increased their company’s agility, but just over one-half of those at followers said this is the case at their business.

Improved customer experiences stand out as another benefit of automation, as cited by 86 percent of respondents at fast movers. In contrast, only one-half of those at followers said their organizations have seen such an improvement.

Among respondents at fast movers, 45 percent said automation will enable business units to access public cloud services through a self-service portal. Among those at followers, only 22 percent said they expect this to happen.

Nearly three of five respondents at fast movers said their company is redeploying engineers to focus on new development because of automation rather than reducing headcount. But just 31 percent of those at followers said this is happening at their organization.

Among respondents at fast movers, 45 percent said automation is expected to accelerate a shift toward a DevOps culture while working with more integrated teams. Nearly as many respondents at follower companies agreed with 42 percent indicating that they anticipated this shift as well.

Overall, organizations deploy new code no less than on a weekly basis while 8 percent report they do so either every hour or on a “continuous” basis.

Among all survey respondents, 27 percent cite security concerns as the biggest obstacle in their efforts to automate IT operations. Date privacy concerns were cited by 19 percent of respondents and internal resistance to change was noted by 16 percent. Offshore management of IT systems was cited by 16 percent of respondents.