Seventy per cent of IT decision makers in the manufacturing industry say that increased security threats and the need for continuous IT availability are acting as catalysts to improve the way they track and record system changes

This according to a new survey of IT directors by Touchpaper, the global provider of software for IT Business Management (ITBM).

The dynamic nature of the sector is driving manufacturers towards systems that provide a real-time view, a risk and impact analysis of planned changes and visibility of interdependencies between IT components, according to the research.

Manufacturers are not alone in facing difficulties in dealing with increasing configuration management challenges as this issue is affecting all industry sectors. According to the survey, despite the pressing need for a complete, real-time view of activity, more than half (59 per cent) of all IT directors questioned admitted that they relied on manual systems to keep track of assets, their interdependencies and changes requested and made. Four out of 10 (41 per cent) said their systems received some form of automatic data feed, while just 37 per cent managed data centrally. In addition, only 34 per cent of IT directors said they used industry standard ITIL processes to manage configuration data, highlighting a worrying development in the battle to manage change.

Other factors fuelling the demand for more effective Configuration Management (CM) systems - vital tools in the fight to keep IT systems available, secure and able to respond to rapidly-changing business needs - are increased pressures relating to supply chain issues, new entrants with cheaper employment costs, globalisation of the marketplace and pricing.

Graham Ridgway, CEO of Touchpaper, commented: "Today's manufacturers are under more pressure to maximise supply chain efficiency at every stage in the process. They are also struggling to overcome the competitive challenges created by new market entrants and associated cheaper labour and components costs. Our survey found that IT directors from all sizes of manufacturers are seeking innovative and proven solutions that support them in these aims and deliver real-time configuration management."

To meet increased internal and external service availability demands, better predict and react to changing business needs and enhance IT expenditure management, IT directors need to optimise organisational use of IT assets. This includes having complete visibility of every system and device, including current location, owner, dependences, usage and history. Ideally, these assets should be managed via a CM system consisting of a central database taking real-time feeds from different IT systems.

The Touchpaper survey showed that the requirement to better manage an organisation's assets is fast becoming a reality as a result of pressing management concerns surrounding security, availability, cost and regulation.

In addition to increased security, availability and compliance challenges, the survey pinpointed that the sheer frequency of change caused by the increasing workload within IT departments acted as a significant barrier in their ability to manage their IT infrastructures.

Challenges to keeping track of configuration changes:

Frequency and number of changes 70 %
Increasing IT workload 58 %
Staff/human error when recording changes 50 %
Departments/users/purchasing depts. not keeping accurate records of assets 48 %
Assets belonging to mobile workers 45 %
End users making their own changes to IT systems 44 %
Lack of good configuration management software 42 %
Monitoring and managing interdependencies of IT components 41 %

"Set against the backdrop of increased competition both at home and abroad and lower margins, the manufacturing sector faces a number of highly complex issues. Configuration management is becoming a core enabler in helping IT departments in the sector adapt to changing business needs within a highly available and secure infrastructure.

"If you don't have an accurate picture of how your IT infrastructure is connected, its interdependencies and how it has changed over time, it's almost like trying to find your way around a country without a map. You'll waste a lot of time trying to work out where you are and ultimately go the wrong way. Resolving problems and changing systems in response to new and evolving requirements will take much longer and be more resource intensive. Furthermore, it will be impossible to analyse the potential business impact of any planned changes, which acts as a significant barrier to results-driven manufacturers," Ridgway concluded.