Technology stack – technology alone is not everything

Technology alone isn’t everything: 48 per cent of German CEOs think their technology stack is not being used effectively. How can companies take full advantage of the potential of modern tools?

According to Atlassian, companies suffer from a deficit in the correct use of implemented solutions. Their biggest obstacle to adequately addressing this problem is the inevitable high expenditure of time.

After all, 53 percent of office workers agree that some tools that enhance collaboration, project management, or communication contribute significantly to improving company culture. 48 percent of IT decision makers surveyed assume they have been able to implement top-tier programs in their IT field, but feel that it is not being used effectively.

Picture 1: According to the survey of IT decision makers, many companies (38 percent) lack the time to make extensive adjustments and restructuring. The cost factor also plays a role for 35 percent of IT decision-makers surveyed. 32% said responsibilities for such changes are not clearly defined. (Photo: Atlassian)

For the implementation of IT solutions to be successful, IT decision makers must be willing to invest more than just the purchase costs. Despite the tight decision-making periods and complex challenges in the company, investing in the efficient and effective use of any solution is essential. The time and cost savings in this regard can have negative long-term effects. There is a common expectation among various decision makers that downloading the software marks the end of the project. However, in fact, the implementation is still just beginning, because it is precisely this program that should also be actively used. Anyone who saves on good preparation and definition ends up incurring greater costs, taking up a lot of unnecessary time, and thus only frustrating on all sides, says Felix Kugler, DACH Channel Director and Eastern Europe at Atlassian.

Investing in cultural change

38 percent of IT decision makers state that their company’s current processes cannot (rather) keep pace with the modern toolkit. This indicates that digital solutions alone are not sufficient to create a sustainable workplace. Instead, investments in modern technology must go hand in hand with relevant cultural change.

In order to initiate and lead such development, companies have to adapt their operations in a way that takes into account the working realities of each individual employee. In order to obtain the greatest potential from the distributed workforce within the limited working hours, every employee must be able to dispose of his work flexibly and be able to organize it efficiently. However, the work of colleagues should not suffer from this: for synchronous and asynchronous digital collaboration a high degree of transparency is required so that the entire team can track the status quo and progress, as well as opportunities to exchange information and communicate efficiently with each other.

Picture 2: 74 percent Interviewing office workers Recognize the advantage of the corporate culture in the advanced IT infrastructure. (Photo: Atlassian)

Picture 3: Some IT decision makers have invested in project collaboration tools (45 percent) and knowledge management (31 percent) in the past 12 months. (Photo: Atlassian)

In order to make digital collaboration more transparent and dramatically improve it, they would like to initiate changes in their company — including knowledge acquisition (31 percent) and project management (28 percent) as well as video conferencing tools (26 percent).

The gap between technology and company culture

“It is not surprising that this gap between technology and company culture is evident. The last 1.5 years of the pandemic have certainly made a significant contribution, because after a long stagnation for many companies in the digitization space, new tools had to be bought practically overnight to continue operations. On the other hand, the accompanying much-needed cultural change needs more time”, says Felix Kugler. “It is now important that the corporate culture actively changes and that appropriate collaboration solutions are created for every team and every employee, otherwise there is a risk of a two-tiered community within companies. With the growing need for digital skills, it must be ensured that every employee benefits equally from the restructuring. digital and have the same access to it.”

Survey “Maturity of Collaboration”

The online survey on digital collaboration, commissioned by Atlassian and conducted by YouGov, was conducted between April 29 and May 3. In addition to German numbers, French numbers were also collected, but they are not taken into account here. In Germany, a total of 250 IT decision-makers were asked about developments in digital collaboration as well as challenges and investments in digital collaboration. 1,004 office workers also answered questions about the maturity of digital collaboration in their company.

atlassian.com