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IT departments dismissed as support engines, says report

A new survey finds that IT departments are bogged down with day-to-day activities in the workplace instead of being viewed as a force for change.

By Ash Dosanjh, 12 May 2008 at 17:56

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The IT Crowd are perceived as tactical fixers, not strategic innovators according to a new report by Touchpaper.

The provider of IT business management solutions asked 226 UK end users what they thought of the services offered by the IT departments in their organisations.

The survey found that a staggering 85 per cent of users believed that IT departments' main function is to maintain existing systems and provide IT support when something goes wrong.

Sadly, only 15 per cent of respondent said that supporting and implementing new corporate projects and enhancing business value through innovation were a part of the IT department's remit.

Marketing director at Touchpaper, Marina Steadman, believes that IT departments are undervalued and that perceptions of their role should to be re-evaluated.

"We're disappointed that things haven't moved on. The question we need to be addressing is who is the real customer of IT departments? End users seem to think that IT departments are there for them, but who is supporting the business?"

Touchpaper's findings also highlight how innovation often takes a back seat with IT departments due to the time-consuming management of repetitive tasks.

According to chief executive officer at Touchpaper, Graham Ridgway, the majority of IT departments are offering basic levels of IT support without really embracing their potential.

"Despite IT support ranking high on the list of end users' priorities, the true potential of the IT department has yet to be fully tapped," he said.

"The sheer volume of daily requests from end users suggests that most IT departments are purely fire-fighting - they're bogged down in day-to-day activities because they don't have the right systems in place to deal with repetitive, routine requests effectively."

Steadman pointed out that such time-consuming activities could be dealt with more effectively and efficiently through the adoption of more automated processes or self-help systems.

"There are some pro-active organisations going out of their way to free up the time of their IT departments. We have one customer that has an online system of instructions to help users with their technical problems," Steadman said.