Slow Response to Incidents Points to Poor Planning

Any IT incident that leads to a disruption in business is a top concern for enterprises. Nearly 60 percent of large companies experience a major IT outage at least monthly, but they are falling short of their goals to resolve problems on time partly due to poor planning, alerting and communications, according to a global survey of 400 IT professionals. The survey, "Major Incident Management Trends 2016," also finds that only about 50 percent have a dedicated team to resolve major IT incidents. The report, conducted by Dimensional Research and commissioned by xMatters, a provider in communications-based business processes, also cites a lack of standard processes as a key reason for their failings. More than half (56 percent) of IT pros said the lack of timely communications during a major incident was more frustrating to business stakeholders than the occurrence of a major incident. Here are key takeaways from the report that indicate why channel providers need to beef up their communications portfolios to help their customers quickly resolve major IT incidents to reduce business disruptions.