Leader: CIOs, CEOs mending rift

New research from the Bathwick Group and Accenture could be a cause for optimism that the IT department and the business are ending their historically adversarial relationship.

In this survey, a similar percentage of business managers and CIOs cited IT as the principle driver behind recent productivity gains.

The report also states the business and IT are "beginning to get over the 'us versus them' mentality".

Encouraging as this news is, business and IT are still far from being of one mind.

For example, in that same survey, IT was said to be under-delivering by over half of the business managers but by just over a third of CIOs.

A separate survey from a couple of weeks ago shows further evidence of the disharmony. Almost two-thirds of CEOs said their IT "underperforms" while 41 per cent of CIOs said business requirements change faster than the IT department can respond.

Perhaps it is unrealistic to think these two groups will ever be in complete agreement - and this is not a necessarily a bad thing as a variety of viewpoints can lead to lively debate and a better outcome than when a CEO is surrounded by 'yes' men.

It is important to remember that something important lies behind the struggle for reconciliation. Building bridges between IT and the business can be a key factor in deriving value from technology, as the Accenture report points out.

Hope can be seen, though, in the fact that CIOs themselves realise business must be their priority if their influence is not to be confined to the server room.