Business must come first warns Gartner Group chief

IT directors must put business before technology if they want their organisations to survive, according to Gartner Group chief Manny Fernandez.

Chairman and CEO, Fernandez, spoke to IT professionals at the annual Gartner conference in Orlando, Florida. He said the three big challenges that face IT directors in 1999 are networking developments, the skills crisis and outsourcing issues.

"Bandwidth is key - networks have become the business," Fernandez said. As voice, data and video network services converge, businesses will start putting all their eggs in one basket - so they must make sure these services can take the pressure, he explained.

Fernandez added to the pressure on worldwide governments to address the potentially crippling IT skills shortage. "Soon for every 10 vacancies, only seven and a half will be filled - this problem must be solved," he said.

Outsourcing - the third key issue - is growing in importance, according to Fernandez. "There is increasing need for alignment between business units and IS organisations to reflect this," he advised.

He commented that total IT spending on the Year 2000 problem has risen from 5 per cent last year to a current level of 29 per cent and he expects it to rise to 44 per cent next year.

However his strongest message was to IT directors who need to shape up their business awareness. "IT is key to survival - directors must be business leaders first and technologists second," he warned.