IT is highly valued, but not a major contributor to innovation, says survey
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Although 87% of senior executives believe that IT is important to their businesses, more than half (59%) do not feel it is important to innovation.
Those are key findings of a global survey, commissioned by the US-based not-for-profit IT Governance Institute (ITGI), which also reveals that nearly half of all companies do not measure the value they are achieving from IT.
This is a serious study: more than 250 non-IT executives in 22 countries were interviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers Belgium to determine their views on IT’s contribution to the business and how their enterprises are governing their IT.
It suggests that only one third of companies’ senior non-IT people believe they rely on their IT departments to provide information about potential business opportunities, enabled by new technologies – a key benefit of innovation.
“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,” comments John Thorp, member of ITGI’s IT Governance Committee.
“Given the current economic climate, enterprises should strengthen their governance of IT to ensure expenditures are delivering real value, reduce or curtail those that aren’t, and pursue innovative uses of IT that can sustain and increase value,” he adds.
Executives surveyed suggested that their organizations’ cultures, as well as a lack of the right skill base, are among the top barriers to achieving value.
“Fortunately, these executives have the power to reduce both of these barriers,” says Robert Stroud, international vice president of ITGI and vice president of service management and governance at CA. “In their position, they can ensure that training is provided to employees, and they can set the tone at the top to result in a culture change.”
Worryingly, ITGI also found that executives do not believe that IT managers are communicating new opportunities to the business, leading to its recommendation that CIOs sit on executive teams. Apparently, 40% of respondents do not currently do this – or have no CIO.
You can get help by downloading a complimentary copy of the Val IT best practices framework (www.itgi.org).
