The Big Question: IT directors face up to ebusiness challenge

IT directors must work hard on their image at board level if companies are to cope with the challenge of ebusiness.

The claim comes from leading IT directors interviewed in this week's Big Question programme.

Bob Harvey, head of IT at Barnados, said: "Ebusiness is going to be mission critical. My personal involvement is making sure I move outside the IT domain very much in support of my senior management colleagues, helping them understand the opportunities of ebusiness in facilitating a more cost-effective organisation."

Ray Barton, MIS manager at Bacardi UK, added: "Because ecommerce is such a buzzword just now, people want it but they don't know what they want. So mixing what the business wants and what IT can provide is going to be the biggest challenge in the coming year."

Peter Willison, head IT and broadcast systems at Capital Radio, was also keen to focus on the softer skills required of the modern IT leader. "We're facing a couple of major challenges. One is marketing, which I think we're going to have to get much, much better at. And the other is honesty. It's no good covering up those mistakes," he said.

To hear more of these views, see this week's Big Question programme in the IT Director Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a38838 ).