A survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit for Mercury sheds light
on how business trends like outsourcing, compliance and new application
environment are impacting corporate IT departments. The results are based on
reponses from 758 IT executives from Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
 
Which 
            of the following activities are most important in ensuring your 
            applications deliver business value? |  /dq/media/post_attachments/bea0e3ff38b23aa0cc11ab9766e208f8fe179c31911ef63583fe3efe9596b3af.gif)  |  Most 
            IT executives in the survey believe it is crucial to get things 
            right early in the design and testing process. |  A 
            Successful Tie Up |  /dq/media/post_attachments/8ffe004dd8fe2d86c8033cfabd82677ef9c7b1a7d2a86130b86fb4d47d1899c4.gif)  |  Most 
            IT professionals feel that transparent services and operations that 
            could scale to meet future requirements would forge successful 
            outsourcing partnerships. |  
  | 
The 
            Compliance Factor |  |   | 1
  
            (No Impact) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
  
            (Major Impact) |  | Sarbanes-Oxley | 41% | 24% | 15% | 10% | 10% |  Basel 
            II | 41% | 22% | 16% | 10% | 10% |  International 
            Accounting Standards (IAS/IFRS) | 20% | 16% | 27% | 21% | 16% |  Data 
            privacy laws | 12% | 16% | 21% | 24% | 28% |  Anti-money 
            laundering legislation | 33% | 25% | 21% | 11% | 11% |  County-specific 
            compliance | 16% | 20% | 30% | 21% | 14% |  The burden of 
            compliance falls on some companies more heavily than others. This 
            explains the respondents' low levels of concern  |  
  |