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IT workers feel disenfranchised

A report has found that IT employees feel isolated from business requirements and IT capabilities.

By Ash Dosanjh, 13 May 2008 at 12:16

IT staff are feeling increasingly disconnected from business decision-making processes relating to their field, according to a new survey from CA.

The independent software company surveyed 250 companies with over 1000 employees. CA found that 69 per cent of IT workers think that there is a growing number of IT decisions that are being made by non-IT professionals. A further 73 per cent of people felt that there was a lack of consideration for IT impact in business decision-making.

Despite the £82 million spent annually on IT, according to CA the disenfranchisement of IT staff has caused more than half of UK businesses to fail to invest properly in IT infrastructure when introducing new business processes.

The report signals the two key reasons for IT staff's disconnection as being a lack of training and the inadequate investment by businesses in key areas.

Up to 37 per cent of people thought the lack of investment in the network would impact the ability of businesses to adopt online applications. Some 38 per cent believed it would affect share company information and 30 per cent thought that it would hinder access to information on the move.

The training needed to deliver such investments is also slowing. Up to 74 per cent of respondents believed that resources spent on training would go down, despite increasing demands on IT.

EMEA product marketing director at CA Kirsten Cox believes that despite the grim figures there is still hope to reverse the situation.

"Many of these issues could be resolved if IT was involved upfront in the decision-making process alongside the business.

"The challenge here is that the IT department itself is struggling to cope with an increasingly complex and inflexible network brought about by advances in technology - none more current than converged networks and as a result, the majority of the IT budget is being spent on maintenance and support and continues to consume resources which would be better invested in more strategic projects".