Innovation

76% of Canadian enterprises say they’re too busy to innovate

Technology teams—and their managers—say they’re too tied up just keeping the lights on to think deeply about strategy

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IT worker installing a server

(Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty)

We are in an age where both customers and employees expect a more innovative, mobile-friendly approach to workplace technology. But a recent study conducted by Vision Critical on behalf of Rogers found that about three quarter of Canadian enterprises’ IT teams are simply too busy to innovate.

Instead, they spend the majority of their time taking care of the day-today network management and maintenance operations as opposed to delivering technology and solutions in their business that will drive innovation. Of the 370 business leaders and 161 IT leaders surveyed, 76% of business leaders and 77% of IT leaders agreed with the statement: “When it comes to IT, we are spending more time keeping the lights on than thinking about strategic direction of the business”:

Table showing how business leaders believe their IT teams spend their time

On average, IT leaders estimate their companies waste nearly 170 hours per week managing outdated network technology and systems. Their C-suite bosses take an even dimmer view, estimating the wastage at 200 hours per week. Both, however, want to see more (half instead of a third) of the company’s IT budgets being spent on strategic activities instead of just keeping existing systems operational.

Rogers released the survey results to mark the launch of a new suite of cloud-managed network services that it says will help free up time and reduce security risks.

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