Companies need to be prepared to restructure their organisation and
improve staff training, to get a significant return on IT
investment, Bill Thomas, managing director for EDS in the UK and
Ireland has urged.
The advice comes as IT managers are under intense pressure from the
board to use IT investment to cut costs or boost profits.
There is also scepticism among companies over whether the promises
by outsourcing providers, such as a reduction in costs and improved
efficiency, can ever be measured.
"There is a strong link between spending on IT and productivity if
you link it to a general business redesign and re-skilling," said
Thomas.
Although he expected the overall market for the UK services market
to remain relatively flat over the next year, demand for business
process outsourcing would continue to be strong, he added.
Many companies in financial services have already outsourced
processes such as mortgage processing and cheque processing, in a
bid to reduce costs in parts of the business that are not deemed a
competitive advantage.