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Top 2013 IT Priority: Business Alignment Over Cloud Computing

Smart businesses are always looking for ways to be more productive and cost effective by leveraging industry trends. Serena surveyed IT professionals and business executives in late 2012 on what they viewed as their top IT priorities for 2013. You may be surprised at the results!

The results of our third survey - conducted at Gartner’s recent Application Architecture, Development and Integration (AADI) Summit (for 2011 and 2012 we polled executives attending the ADDI Summit on the same questions) - revealed delivering applications faster and aligning IT to business goals were the highest ranked IT priorities for 2013.

These findings underscore the trend that online enterprises have elevated themselves past departmental IT concerns. Instead, the results show they are now focusing on the competitive goals of the business itself. In fact, in contrast to the last two years where it was one of the lowest rated priorities, aligning IT to business goals was this year’s second highest priority.

It’s interesting to see a contrasting shift in IT priorities, as both reducing application costs and moving applications to the Cloud were reported much less of a priority in 2013 compared to 2012. Both of which fell multiple spots on the one to ten number scale of priority.

The 2013 survey also uncovered that release management continues to be a major challenge, especially important due to IT’s priority of meeting the increasing demands from the business. Almost two-thirds of the respondents reported they release more applications, yet feel the process is less than optimal. In fact, 11 percent reported more than five times the number of releases than last year. Another 47 percent reported they are actively improving their release management systems.

The survey also covered top Application Development initiatives for 2013. For the third year in a row, managing applications as a business process came in as the most important initiative for the coming year. End-to-end traceability and application development tool integration remain unchanged from last year’s survey, coming in at number two and three respectively. While priorities have shifted over the last two years from cost-focused to business-focused, the research shows a process-based approach remains paramount for IT success.

Other survey results revealed:

- 59 percent of respondents cited delivering applications faster as the top application development priority in 2013

- 48 percent cited better alignment to business needs as the top priority, more than double the percentage of last year’s survey

- 62 percent of respondents cited managing application development as a business process as “very important to extremely important” to their organization

- 61 percent said having end-to-end traceability (from code in production back to the business requirements) is “very important to extremely important”

- 36 percent cited developing mobile applications as an important development priority in 2013.

Almost 100 participated in the survey – many senior level IT executives from financial services, public sector, IT services and healthcare organizations.

Do you agree with these 2013 priorities? What are your priorities for this year? I would love to hear your thoughts. Clich here to email me: Miguel Tam

ABOUT Miguel Tam

Miguel Tam is Serena Software’s Senior Product Marketing Manger. Tam has over 20 years of experience in the enterprise software and manufacturing space, helping high-tech, cleantech, and services firms launch successful new products. He has deep expertise in software development practices and new product development, including experience at Oracle, CA Technologies, and Ernst & Young Consulting.

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Infographic summarizing the survey findings

Last year's Serena survey

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Top 2013 IT Priority: Business Alignment Over Cloud Computing

Smart businesses are always looking for ways to be more productive and cost effective by leveraging industry trends. Serena surveyed IT professionals and business executives in late 2012 on what they viewed as their top IT priorities for 2013. You may be surprised at the results!

The results of our third survey - conducted at Gartner’s recent Application Architecture, Development and Integration (AADI) Summit (for 2011 and 2012 we polled executives attending the ADDI Summit on the same questions) - revealed delivering applications faster and aligning IT to business goals were the highest ranked IT priorities for 2013.

These findings underscore the trend that online enterprises have elevated themselves past departmental IT concerns. Instead, the results show they are now focusing on the competitive goals of the business itself. In fact, in contrast to the last two years where it was one of the lowest rated priorities, aligning IT to business goals was this year’s second highest priority.

It’s interesting to see a contrasting shift in IT priorities, as both reducing application costs and moving applications to the Cloud were reported much less of a priority in 2013 compared to 2012. Both of which fell multiple spots on the one to ten number scale of priority.

The 2013 survey also uncovered that release management continues to be a major challenge, especially important due to IT’s priority of meeting the increasing demands from the business. Almost two-thirds of the respondents reported they release more applications, yet feel the process is less than optimal. In fact, 11 percent reported more than five times the number of releases than last year. Another 47 percent reported they are actively improving their release management systems.

The survey also covered top Application Development initiatives for 2013. For the third year in a row, managing applications as a business process came in as the most important initiative for the coming year. End-to-end traceability and application development tool integration remain unchanged from last year’s survey, coming in at number two and three respectively. While priorities have shifted over the last two years from cost-focused to business-focused, the research shows a process-based approach remains paramount for IT success.

Other survey results revealed:

- 59 percent of respondents cited delivering applications faster as the top application development priority in 2013

- 48 percent cited better alignment to business needs as the top priority, more than double the percentage of last year’s survey

- 62 percent of respondents cited managing application development as a business process as “very important to extremely important” to their organization

- 61 percent said having end-to-end traceability (from code in production back to the business requirements) is “very important to extremely important”

- 36 percent cited developing mobile applications as an important development priority in 2013.

Almost 100 participated in the survey – many senior level IT executives from financial services, public sector, IT services and healthcare organizations.

Do you agree with these 2013 priorities? What are your priorities for this year? I would love to hear your thoughts. Clich here to email me: Miguel Tam

ABOUT Miguel Tam

Miguel Tam is Serena Software’s Senior Product Marketing Manger. Tam has over 20 years of experience in the enterprise software and manufacturing space, helping high-tech, cleantech, and services firms launch successful new products. He has deep expertise in software development practices and new product development, including experience at Oracle, CA Technologies, and Ernst & Young Consulting.

Related Links:

Infographic summarizing the survey findings

Last year's Serena survey

Application Architecture, Development and Integration (AADI) Summit

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...