Enterprises say that better collaboration between business and IT is the most critical issue their IT organizations face, according to a recent study conducted by alfabet at its international planningIT eXchange 2009 event during November 2009 in Berlin, Germany.

Based upon 100 survey responses received from European and North American attendees, better collaboration was cited by 59% of respondents, followed by cost reduction (50%) and consolidating the application landscaping (41%).

When asked where Business IT Management generates the greatest value, 66% selected standardization of IT processes, technologies and the application landscape, followed by shortened and/or safer planning and decision-making processes (46%) and identifying synergies between parallel running projects (41%). Among other leading responses, some 34% identified both IT cost reductions and improved risk management due to greater transparency.

Over the next three years, some 68% of respondents see Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) increasing in importance and priority, with only 1% indicating it will decrease in importance and priority. The biggest challenges establishing effective business management included lack of resources and time (51%) and an insufficient level of planning processes and enterprise architecture within IT (50%).

“Our survey confirms that Business IT Management is being used as a strategic lever to make the IT support for the business more agile, innovative, cost efficient and standardized,” said Erik Masing, CEO of alfabet. “Mid to large-sized organizations are demanding integrated and automated IT planning processes to support the partnership between business and IT. Such processes ensure that business and IT are using the same information base to communicate and collaborate regularly and clearly and provide transparency for all stakeholders on strategy, demand status, project status and investment decisions.”