IT doesn't offer competitive advantage, say CIOs

Almost nine out of ten IT directors do not believe IT offers a competitive advantage to their business, according to a new report that highlights the continuing gulf between the boardroom and the IT department.

The survey of 447 IT directors in 15 countries across Europe found a third happy to stay in the back-office providing operational support and administrative support. Only 11 per cent said they see IT's role as providing a unique and competitive advantage for the business.

Over a third (38 per cent) also do not see IT failure as a cost to the business. Yet a quarter of the respondents reported losses of over €50,000 from IT cock-ups and 38 per cent reported losses up to €50,000.

The survey, carried out by Winmark and sponsored by BMC Software, found that half of IT directors do not believe their IT and business strategies are closely aligned – a problem emphasised by the fact 36 per cent of the companies surveyed do not have an IT representative on the board.

Nearly, 40 percent of IT Directors said they do not spend enough time with the CEO to actually understand what is required from the IT function.

Part of that problem may be a loss of faith in IT by some boardrooms and CEOs but Brian Whittaker, European marketing director at BMC said it is down to a lack of communication, which is then compounded by the inability of many IT directors to talk to the business in the right way.

"It's about time and access. Sometimes communication is not occurring. The IT director is not giving it the right emphasis," he said.

Whittaker claims one of the areas IT has a real problem delivering the information the board wants is IT report requests, which he said rarely provide the right information in a way the business can understand it in a timely fashion.

"You never get it when you want it and it takes forever to get it," he said.

The problem appears to be rooted in business change and how it is communicated. Business changes that have a major impact on the IT function change at least once a year according to 30 per cent of respondents. But almost two-thirds said these changes are not communicated quickly enough for the IT department to respond effectively.