Computer Weekly, the NCC and Toshiba have conducted one of the
biggest-ever studies of the role and structure of IT in today's
organisations. In the first of a three part series, Karl Schneider
looks at the pace of IT development and who is driving it
Do you think that your organisation is too conservative in its
adoption of IT? If you do then you are in good company because
according to a major study, half of the UK's senior IT
professionals think that the pace of IT adoption in their
organisation is too slow. And almost as many think that IT
development is driven too much from within the IT department.
The survey, one of the biggest ever undertaken among UK IT
decision-makers, was conducted by Computer Weekly and the National
Computing Centre, sponsored by Toshiba. Based on more than 1,200
responses, it paints a picture of a nation divided between those
organisations that are in the IT fast track and those in the slow
lane.
At one extreme are the IT enthusiasts. In these organisations, IT
is identified as one of the key enablers of competitiveness and
business success, adopted aggressively and given a place at the
heart of business strategy. A major role of these IT teams is to
develop new applications, identify and engineer changes in business
processes and seek IT-enabled opportunities for the organisation to
deliver new products and services. IT development is driven by the
business, not left to the IT department alone. IT is likely to be
represented directly on the board.
At the other extreme are the IT laggards. For them IT is very much
an afterthought, ranked on a par with the company plumbing and kept
well away from decisions about business strategy. IT is adopted
slowly and conservatively, justified by short-term cost savings,
and the role of the IT team is largely to keep the infrastructure
working. IT development in these organisations is usually driven
from the IT department, and IT is unlikely to have board-level
representation.
In general, IT professionals in the fast track companies think
their organisations have got it right, while, not surprisingly,
those working for the laggards don't.
The survey asked respondents to categorise the actual pace of IT
adoption in their organisations. The results show that
organisations are fairly evenly distributed across the five
categories defined.
About a third of all organisations fall into the two
fastest-adopter categories and another third were put by
respondents in the two most conservative categories. The remainder
were put in the middle category, defined as those in which "IT
technologies and applications are assessed for their contribution
to a range of corporate goals, including productivity, quality and
customer service".
But when they were asked to compare the actual state of affairs
with what they felt was the most appropriate pace of IT adoption
for their organisation, the results were very different. Fewer than
5% think their firms should be in the two most conservative
categories, while 55% believe that the two most aggressive
categories of IT adoption are the most appropriate.
Overall, 49% of respondents feel that their organisations are
moving too slowly - that the most appropriate pace of IT adoption
for their organisation is faster than actually occurs. Only 6%,
about one in 16, think that their organisations are adopting IT too
aggressively.
The responses varied between industry sectors in a predictable way.
Firms in the finance sector adopt IT more aggressively, while those
in productio
n industries and public sector organisations tend to be the most
conservative.
Similarly, IT professionals working in the finance sector generally
feel that the pace of IT adoption in their organisations is about
right, while those in production industries and the public sector
think it is too slow.
Surprisingly, the size of the organisation involved seems to make
much less difference. There is a slight tendency for larger
organisations to take a more aggressive approach to IT adoption,
and for smaller organisations to be more conservative but the
variation is much less significant than that between industry
sectors.
However, the representation of IT at board level does seem to make
a difference. Firms with an IT director are almost twice as likely
to be in the two fastest categories for IT adoption as those with
no formal representation of IT on the board.
The strong mismatch that emerges between the actual pace of IT
adoption and what IT decision makers regard as most appropriate is
repeated when IT decision-makers are asked about the source of
demand for new IT in their organisations. Does the pressure for IT
development come from within the IT department or from the
business, and is this the most appropriate source of demand?
When identifying the actual source of demand for new IT,
respondents are distributed fairly evenly across the five
categories. Just over 40% say that IT tends to be driven by the
business plan and demands of end users, about 35% say that the IT
department tends to drive IT demand and 25% say that IT strategy
and business strategy are determined simultaneously, with pressure
from both directions.
But the balance is very different when they are asked about the
most appropriate source of demand for new IT. Almost 60% believe
the business should be in the driving seat in their organisation
and only 7% think that demand should come from within the IT
department.
Comparing the two sets of figures, almost 45% of respondents think
that IT development in their organisation is too IT-driven - that
the most appropriate source of demand for IT is closer to the
business than the actual source of demand. Only 12% think that IT
is too business-driven.
Here, the variation between industry sectors is much less marked
than for the pace of IT adoption. But once again the representation
of IT at board level does seem to make a difference: firms in which
IT demand is business-driven tend to be those that have an IT
director, while those in which IT demand is driven by the IT
department are more likely to have no formal representation of IT
on the board.
Is there a correlation between the pace of IT adoption and the
source of IT demand? The answer is a resounding yes, but not in the
way you might expect. Firms in which IT demand is driven by the
business are much more likely to be aggressive adopters, while
those in which the IT department drives demand tend to be the most
conservative.
This tendency is clearly marked. More than 55% of organisations in
which IT is business-driven are regarded as aggressive adopters of
IT while only 15% are conservative adopters. In organisations in
which IT demand is IT-driven the position is reversed: only 14% are
viewed as aggressive adopters of IT and 58% are conservative.
Similarly, those organisations in which IT professionals feel the
pace of IT adoption is too slow are overwhelmingly those in which
IT demand is regarded as too IT-driven.
It seems that across the UK, IT decision-makers are frustrated by
what they see as the over-conservative approach to IT taken by
their organisations. In their eyes, the fault lies with the
business. The IT slowcoaches are mostly those firms in which IT
professionals say the business is failing to take a lead, leaving
it to the IT department to drive the uptake of new IT.
Getting IT on the board
Just over a quarter of
organisations now have a dedicated IT director on the board, and a
further 34% have a director whose responsibilities include IT. So
more than 60% of organisations have IT represented on the board in
some way.
These figures hide a strong variation with size. The larger the
organisation, the more likely it is that IT is represented at board
level. At the smallest end, 60% of organisations with fewer than
100 staff have no formal representation of IT on the board. For
organisations with more than 5,000 staff, almost half have a
dedicated IT director on the board and another 40% have a board
director with IT as part of their responsibility, leaving only 12%
with no formal board-level representation of IT.
Should companies take IT seriously?
1. 55% of IT decision-makers think their organisations should
be aggressive adopters of IT
2. 49% think the pace of adoption of IT in their
organisations is too slow
3. Only 6% think their organisations are moving too fast to
adopt IT
4. The finance and utilities sectors are the fastest
adopters of IT, the public sector the slowest
5. Organisations with IT directors are more likely to be
aggressive IT adopters
6. 60% think the business should drive IT demand
7. 44% think IT demand in their organisations is too
IT-driven
8. Only 12% think IT is too business-driven
9. Organisations in which IT is business-driven tend to be
faster adopters of IT.
Chapter and verse
The Computer Weekly/NCC Survey of
IT Decision Makers 2001, sponsored by Toshiba, looked at the role
and structure of IT in UK organisations, the pace of IT adoption,
the development and implementation of IT strategy and the key
technologies and applications being adopted.
Invitations to take part in the survey were sent to 30,000 senior
Computer Weekly readers in IT user organisations, excluding those
in the IT hardware or software industries. The study is based on
1,246 responses.
The full report is available, price £200, from Membership Services,
National Computing Centre, Oxford House, Oxford Road, Manchester M1
7ED. Tel: 0161-242 2121, e-mail: info@ncc.co.uk
karl.schneider@rbi.co.uk