Aging, monolithic systems, and a lack of technological understanding at the executive level are limiting organizational agility and responsiveness to disruptions according to a new report.
The IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by IFS and Boomi polled over 1,000 C-level respondents across 12 countries and finds that legacy technology platforms and unfamiliarity with the essential role APIs and composability play in unlocking business data are combining to hamper insights and transformation.
While most businesses believe they have withstood the last three years of disruption, leaders report that working capital and inventory imbalances (56 percent), volatile demand (53 percent), and unpredictable supply chains (48 percent) have been their biggest challenges. Respondents also point to legacy applications (60 percent), lack of integration (48 percent), and inflexible/monolithic applications (43 percent) as hindering efforts to overcome these challenges — impacting the efficiency with which they can mitigate risks.
The research also shows how outdated tech is affecting businesses, with reports of limited visibility into operational processes (24 percent) and poor internal collaboration (18 percent).
“This research sends a clear message to executives: To remain competitive, increase agility, and drive productivity across their entire business, composability is key,” says Ed Macosky, chief product and technology officer at Boomi. “Speed to realizing value requires a strong data foundation and a mature cloud strategy as prerequisites to the adoption of other advanced technologies.”
There are some positive findings, 89 percent of respondents identify API-driven innovation as a key component of composability with over half (51 percent) pointing to seamless integration between process workflows, and 37 percent to the importance of single-platform solutions.
In terms of technology preferences, APIs lead the way with 82 percent of respondents emphasizing their significance, followed by AI (45 percent) and machine learning (40 percent). The research indicates that supply chain (51 percent), procurement (47 percent), and customer service and support (40 percent) are the top areas organizations believe that would benefit from improved composability.
The full report is available from the Boomi site.
Image credit: Syda_Productions/depositphotos.com
