IT managers lose track of costs

One in seven IT managers are using guesswork alone to measure their infrastructure costs.

A survey found UK businesses could be losing up to £6bn annually in IT budgets, as IT managers admitted they were unable to estimate within 30 per cent how much their expenditure was.

Nearly half made purchasing decisions without checking existing assets whilst a fifth couldn't even guess within the nearest ten as to how many suppliers they had.

Dave Chapman, IT infrastructure manager at ICL, said that managers should stop putting their finger in the air and hoping for the best.

Chapman said: "There are a number of methods available to managers, that the survey suggests they don't use."

To save budgets being swallowed by the IT 'black hole' Chapman suggested firms introduce effective methods to measure and manage costs instead of just doing it haphazardly once a year.

ICL and Peregrine Systems compiled the survey from 200 IT manager responses in May.