Companies taking longer to make business critical decisions, reveals EIU study
– Research sponsored by Progress Software finds a third of all businesses are slower to react –
London, UK, 9 February, 2012 – More than a third (39 per cent) of all European businesses are taking longer than ever to reach business critical decisions, according to research carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) announced today. Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading software provider that enables enterprises to be operationally responsive, commissioned the research to demonstrate the extent to which the pace of change and the complexity of the environments that businesses are operating in is impacting on their ability to perform effectively.
The study was conducted by surveying 150 European executives, approximately half of whom were C-level executives, and found that only 25 per cent of those surveyed felt that their critical decision-making times had fallen in the last five years. Furthermore, the study revealed that only 16 per cent of all executives surveyed felt that they were very effective at making decisions about how and when to respond to change.
Dan Veitkus, General Manager, EMEA at Progress Software said: “This research demonstrates that the pace of change in modern business is significantly affecting the ability of European organisations to respond effectively and make decisions. Today, socio-economic events are happening at much faster pace, which means that organisations are increasingly learning the value of responding in real-time and how it can help them to become truly responsive to what is happening around them. By understanding the value of responsiveness, decision makers will be able to see and understand situations quickly and decide theright course of action in the face of the unexpected, allowing them to affect a change in that direction immediately.“
Chris Webber, Senior Editor, EIU, and author of the report said: “Today businesses are under more pressure than ever to deliver better results and increased efficiency at a reduced cost. What this research demonstrates is that despite this pressure, the inflexibility of some organisations means that they are,ironically, less well prepared to respond to changing circumstances that can severely affect their bottom line. The inability to respond to change and manage it effectively can be one of the key causes of business inefficiency and could be the difference between success and failure in today’s economic climate.”
About Progress Software Corporation
Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) is an independent enterprise software company that enables businesses to be operationally responsive to changing conditions and customer interactions as they occur – to capitalize on new opportunities, drive greater efficiencies and reduce risk. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class enterprise software spanning event-driven visibility and real-time response, open integration, data access and integration, and application development and deployment – all supporting on-premises and SaaS/Cloud deployments. Progress maximizes the benefits of operational responsiveness while minimizing IT complexity and total cost ofownership. Progress can be reached at www.progress.com or +1-781-280-4000.
Progress is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation or one of its affiliates or subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Any other names contained herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
