IT world lacks staff with skills, say execs

gallery

A lack of IT staff with good skills and service delivery are growing causes for concern among chief executives and chief information officers from around the world, according to a survey.

Over half (58 per cent) of respondents to the survey commissioned by the not-for-profit IT Governance Institute (ITGI) said that insufficient numbers of staff remains the most common problem experienced in IT departments over the last 12 months, up 13 per cent on a similar survey conducted in 2005.

In addition, 48 per cent said that IT service delivery problems remain the second most common problem and more than one third (38 per cent) pointed to problems relating to staff with inadequate skills.

Lynn Lawton, international president of ITGI said the industry is seeing increased demand for qualified information technology professionals, despite lay-offs and economic instability. "Without a well-trained, fully staffed IT department, the bottom line is that many organisations around the world are needlessly sacrificing money, productivity and competitive advantage," she said.

The implications of the IT staffing and delivery problems reported by the 749 executives in 23 countries questioned by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for ITGI's Governance Global Status Report 2008 are backed by the growth of IT's strategic importance.

The overwhelming majority (93 per cent) of respondents said that IT is 'somewhat to very' important to the overall corporate strategy: an increase of six per cent from 2005. And IT has risen up the board agenda, according to 32 per cent of respondents, which was up seven per cent from the previous survey.

But 36 per cent reported that alignment between IT strategy and corporate strategy is 'average, poor or very poor'. In response, European and North American companies are leading the way in implementing IT governance practices, gaining 50 per cent of responses in each region. This is compared to 44 per cent in Asia and 27 per cent in South America.

Of its own enterprise leaders focused framework for IT governance, Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) - now in its fourth edition - it said awareness had surpassed 50 per cent, nearly doubling since 2005. And use of COBIT had nearly doubled, from eight per cent to 16 per cent.

Email to a friend

Print this page