70% of businesses experience operational chaos
77% say that as technology spreads, agility and productivity become harder
Research from Software AG, a Software GmbH brand, shows that operational chaos could be affecting long term imperatives in businesses. Nearly three quarters (70%) of businesses admit to being affected by operational chaos, which can be borne out of technology or process challenges. Crucially, 77% of businesses say that agility and productivity are more difficult to achieve as technology expands. Additionally, two thirds have seen an increase in technical debt, which forces more retrospective work, resulting in less strategic opportunity.
Operational Chaos in an organization manifests in slower decision making (75%), delayed product/service launches (80%) and customer service disruption (78%). Additionally, the past year has seen an 8% increase in organizations who believe their governance efforts are being impacted by organizational chaos. In a year where several major regulations come into effect, 70% have to battle through operational chaos to achieve compliance.
Speaking about the findings, Steve Ponting, Director at Software AG, commented: “There is a global emphasis this year on how industries can balance short term goals against long term imperatives, as we hurtle into a more ‘intelligent’ age*. What we can see on the ground, and from our research, is that organizations face demands from multiple directions and are under tremendous pressure to perform. And, as more new technologies emerge to ‘help’, the
greater the potential for operational chaos.
“Organizations should look at both their technology and their processes and invest in making them as transparent as possible. This is the first step to achieving the insights that empower long term thinking. Unfortunately, many are stuck in a problem solving loop because operational chaos is too prevalent to allow for anything more,” he continued.
The Software AG Reality Check 2025 white paper outlines how companies can modernize their technology and make their processes more intelligent, by pinpointing the sources of this Operational Chaos. Some of the key findings in the research include:
- 75% of organizations say decision making is slower because of Operational Chaos
- 80% of new product/service launches are negatively affected by Operational Chaos
- Customer Services are impacted in 78% of organizations
- 43% of organizations lack the expertise to handle operational chaos
- 33% say cost cutting and ‘doing without’ results in more operational chaos
- Shadow IT is a problem for 73% of organizations
- 37% of business don’t believe Shadow AI exists in their organization, but 50% of knowledge workers admit to using it
- 79% of organizations agree that operational chaos hits them on both a technology and a process level
To read more about the research and ways to begin clearing Operational Chaos, see the 2025 Reality Check Report, here.
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