Boards don't take techies seriously

Many larger companies are failing to recognise the value and importance of IT within their business and are missing out as a result.

Just under half (47 per cent) of IT directors feel their department is merely seen as a cost centre by their board, according to research commissioned by Microsoft. And only 44 per cent of respondents from companies of more than 1,000 employees said the IT department is represented at board level.

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Despite this lack of recognition, 83 per cent of IT directors said application performance issues directly impact their businesses, while 76 per cent said delays in bringing in new apps also cause difficulties.

Just 35 per cent of respondents are happy with the amount of time it takes for new applications to be developed and introduced into the business.

And although 37 per cent of the tech execs spoken to said better alignment of business and IT is a priority, the common perception is that companies are failing to act on these aims and compromising the impact of technology as a result.

It also looks as if the end user is getting forgotten: just 16 per cent of IT departments believe the user experience is currently a critical component of application development, and just 36 per cent have planned to improve user experience in future projects.

Matthew Dunstan, application platform group manager at Microsoft UK, said better alignment of IT and business strategy will promote better operations, visibility and communication between different parts of the business.

The research quizzed 200 UK IT directors from companies across a range of sectors. Half of the companies had 500 to 999 employees with the other half having more than 1,000 employees.