Business change is being delivered – at what price?

In new research published as a white paper today, although over half of respondents said at least 75% of their change-orientated projects were delivered on time, when asked how the level of "on-time" performance was achieved, this was typically addressed by:

• applying more human resources than planned
• releasing additional budget to improve systems
• reducing the scope of the project.

The research, which was undertaken by IDC and sponsored by Capita Assurance and Testing, also showed that only 24 per cent of respondents were fully satisfied that they obtained sufficient and timely notice of quality issues. 

The survey was conducted among 60 large organisations in the public and private sectors, including a number in financial services. It looked at IT programmes that support business change, the attitude towards quality assurance and testing and the impact on the organisations’ customers when things went wrong.

Sean Rowlands, director, managed services at Capita Assurance and Testing said: “Timely programme delivery is crucial with over 80 per cent of respondents agreeing that a delay would have commercial consequences and more than 43 per cent expecting that a budget overrun would impact their customers.

“Instead of looking at new ways of implementing quality assurance and testing and measuring emerging quality, it seems that organisations are still throwing resources at projects at the eleventh hour so that they meet the required deadline rather than making sure they deliver the full scope of the project. This is like driving a car using only the rear view mirror.

“It really is a case of prevention being better than the cure and yet less than one in five (18 per cent) use any kind of independent quality assurance specialists. In the current economic climate when budgets are tight it is even more important that firms look at their quality assurance and testing functions and do things differently.”

More than 70 per cent of the organisations surveyed were private sector firms including those in financial services. A third had annual revenues of more than £500 million and 60 per cent had 100 or more IT staff based in the UK.

Capita Assurance and Testing is the UK’s leading provider of systems quality assurance and testing solutions.

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Capita Assurance and Testing helps private and public sector organisations at all stages of test maturity to achieve optimum levels of systems quality at the desired cost.   It offers independent systems quality assurance and testing solutions ranging from managed services delivered on and offshore to consulting and recruitment services and provides the full spectrum of functional and non functional testing skills as well as strategic quality assurance and governance expertise.  Further information on Capita Assurance and Testing can be found at: www.capita-at.co.uk

The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions.  With 36,000 people at more than 300 sites, including 60 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its client’s services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2008 of £2,441 million.

Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: http://www.capita.co.uk