IT not a contributor to innovation, say execs

gallery

The good news for IT professionals is that 87 per cent of business executives surveyed said they believed IT was important to their organisations.

But the survey, released yesterday by the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) also found more than half did not feel that IT was an important contributor to innovation, suggesting the function still lacks strategic clout within business.

PricewaterhouseCoopers interviewed over 250 non-IT executives in 22 countries to compile the ITGI’s Executive View of IT Governance study. And it revealed that 59 per cent did not view IT’s contribution to innovation as important.

The study also suggested a disconnect between perceptions of IT value by the business and IT organisation, where the executives said they did not believe that IT managers were communicating new opportunities to the business.

The executive study is at odds with the non-profit research organisation’s 2008 study of IT managers, which reported that they felt they provided the business with frequent information.

The study suggested one solution to aligning these different perceptions was to include the chief information officer (CIO) on the executive team, where 40 per cent of respondents did not currently do this or did not have a CIO.

John Thorp, an ITGI IT Governance Committee member, said: “Executive management is generally convinced of the value of IT investments, but there is a significant lost opportunity that enterprises can close by measuring that value and paying more attention to IT’s potential contributions to innovation.”

A significant majority did recognise IT as a major contributor in its traditional strongholds of efficiency and effectiveness. Yet only a third of the executives questioned relied on their IT department to provide information about potential business opportunities enabled by new technologies.

“Given the current economic climate, enterprises should strengthen their governance of IT to ensure that their expenditures are delivering real value, reduce or curtail those that aren’t, and pursue innovative uses of IT that can sustain and increase value,” added Thorp.

Email to a friend

Print this page