CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA) today announced the results of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on CA’s behalf that evaluated IT organisations’ current strategies for increasing efficiency and workforce productivity and the role IT management, service, and support play in achieving these goals. The study confirmed that the key IT management drivers now revolve around quality of service and cost control.
Seventy-five percent of the IT decision-makers surveyed see IT management software solutions as important or very important in reaching their goal of IT efficiency.
While IT management software solutions can offer tremendous benefit to today’s IT organisation, the advantages of IT management software can be nullified by poor deployment and performance of these solutions. The most important criterion for selecting or renewing IT management software services, after functionality and integration capability the study found, is the quality of software support offered by a software vendor.
“We believe this study validates the significant role that support plays in helping companies achieve their IT goals,” said Leo Annab, corporate senior vice president of Global CA Support. “We feel it also stresses the importance of considering the support options available when selecting an IT management software solution.”
The study found that a majority of IT executives surveyed (56 percent) believe that the IT management software solution vendor is the best provider for quality support, rather than third-party consulting services or subcontractors. The majority also indicated that a worldwide support organisation is definitively an added benefit.
The features and options respondents stated as important and extremely important in the definition of support quality include: The speed of support response (84 percent), the availability of product specific expertise and a single point of contact (62 percent), the availability of proactive support for either upgrade planning or proactive health checks of the solution (54 and 51 percent, respectively), and the availability of on-site support services (54 percent).
“We believe the survey clearly found that comprehensive support services help the IT organisation avoid wasting resources and costly rework when operating an IT management software solution,” Annab continued. “Support services also prevent costly downtime for the business users and enhance the quality of the IT management solution.”
Based on the study results, the availability of a world-class support organisation is very important to ensuring a successful deployment, and achieving significant technical and cost advantages for an IT organisation.
Forrester Consulting surveyed 174 IT decision-makers involved in IT operations, service support, and infrastructure. Two-thirds of those contacted were in the U.S., while the remaining one-third were based in the U.K.
The complete commissioned study results are available at http://www.ca.com/us/analysts/reports/collateral.aspx?CID=222699