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Only 12 percent of organizations can claim that their whole organization is on the path to business agility even though more than two thirds of survey participants agreed that agile organizations are better able to quickly respond to dynamic business conditions, according to a new survey from CA Technologies.

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The survey, Business Agility throughout the Enterprise, finds improved Business Agility is expected to deliver:

■ Better competitive advantage (54 percent of respondents)

■ Higher customer satisfaction and retention (65 percent of respondents)

■ Increased employee productivity and retention (58 percent of respondents)

■ Reduced costs (57 percent of respondents)

■ Faster time to act on new opportunities (84 percent of respondents)

84 percent of survey participants believe that the capability to respond more quickly to new opportunities will give them a distinct advantage but only 1 in 10 executives said they are leveraging the benefits of agile across their whole organization to achieve speed and responsiveness.

The majority of respondents attributed the challenges of agile methodology adoption throughout the organization to complex environments (64 percent), cultural or political barriers (58 percent), a lack of financial commitment to change (25 percent), and outdated apps and tools (25 percent). Lack of skills or faith in the process are dismissed as relatively inconsequential problems.

Increased Agility Drives Better Results Across the Company

Business agility is recognized and appreciated for the benefits it can deliver in aligned organizations. Even with increased adoption, there is still a lot of opportunity to be gained. As organizations continue to incorporate agile methodologies and practices across the enterprise, they will see some marked improvements in their business. Improved business agility was cited by respondents as key to reducing fire-drills (51 percent), improving process efficiency (47 percent) and increasing cross-functional visibility (47 percent). Additional benefits in collaboration, customer impact and experience, and alignment across planning and investment were also identified in the survey.

“Success today requires that companies quickly sense and adapt to changes, pivot to address market changes and customer needs, and do so at scale,” said Surya Panditi, GM, Agile Management, CA Technologies. “As organizations become modern software factories, adopting an agile mindset and implementing principles across every department – from manufacturing to marketing to finance – ensures that organizations can speed up performance to remain competitive.”