Manufacturers need to reassess critical IT projects

That's the view of Matt Leighton, head of manufacturing solutions at Star, a specialist provider of cloud computing services, who asserts that too much time, money and management effort is spent on IT maintenance. "Look at the figures, and the amount spent on IT budgets each year is surprisingly large," he notes. "Yet look at how that budget is spent, and the priorities are often around activities that keep things going, rather than help the business advance." Leighton says that too many manufacturers are competing with one hand tied behind their backs. He suggests dividing IT expenditures in two: business-specific and business-critical. "The real question is how many of these are genuinely adding value to the business," he says. "Simply put, the result is you see that businesses are often prioritising an upgrade to the mail server over implementing a data warehouse project that could boost the bottom line by adding business intelligence capabilities," explains Leighton. "Core business-specific, business-critical IT projects can't be neglected while upgrades to the mail sever take priority. Both types of project are important and neither of them can be left to take second place," he insists. "IT-driven projects get done because they're genuinely important. The problem isn't that they shouldn't be undertaken; it's that they have the effect of driving other important projects to the back the queue," he adds. His solution: manufacturing businesses shouldn't shy away from using a managed services provider and use in-house IT resources more strategically to grow the business. "Building, maintaining and operating IT infrastructure is not a core competency. It can absorb a disproportionate amount of management time, operating budget, and capital expenditure – all of which can more profitably be deployed elsewhere."