More than half of businesses fail to exploit IT

Business leaders realise the importance of IT to business, as well as the size of the investment they are making in technology, yet almost half of business leaders surveyed admitted that their organisations were under-using IT or failing to align IT investments with business objectives.

The study, which polled 75 chief executives and 75 IT directors and chief information officers in the US, UK, Europe, South America and Asia, was carried out by independent research specialist Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates on behalf of computer maker Hewlett Packard.

According to the research, 99 per cent of chief executives and 86 per cent of CIOs believe technology is integral to the success of their companies. In addition, 88 per cent of chief executives and 90 percent of CIOs now say they have harmonised views with the rest of the business on how IT can deliver business outcomes at their company.

A world without this integration is viewed by the surveyed business leaders as almost apocalyptic - companies would lose money, be less efficient and have to charge more for their products leading to the loss of customers and market share.

Less than 10 per cent of both groups predict that IT spending will decrease over the next five years. Over half of the chief executives polled claim that the technology investments they will sign off will actually increase over the next five years.

The starkest figure from the research is that only 43 per cent of chief executives believe that their technology decisions are in step with the overall plans for the business.

"99 per cent of chief executives and 86 per cent of chief information officers think technology is integral to the success of their company. Yet almost half of chief executives and 35 per cent of chief information officers think their technology is successfully aligned with the business" said Ann Livermore, worldwide manager of HP's technology solutions group.

"The 60s was the era of data input, while the 80s was one of the first information systems. The 90s saw businesses developing and deploying applications to really improve the way we deal with specific business processes - yet it remained largely on the edge of the business. The 21st century sees us as user moving into a new era where IT is critical to the operations of most corporations and commands significant investment and resources" added Livermore.

According to the survey's findings, chief executives want their CIOs to have technical expertise and better communication skills, specifically being able to communicate advanced technical knowledge in laymen's terms.

In contrast, CIOs think their bosses want them to have the ability to better communicate, technical expertise and a better understanding of the overall business strategy.

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