Only 25% of UK IT directors believe that measuring the
value of IT investment is an important part of their job, according
to a survey by business consultancy Deloitte &
Touche.
The surprise finding, from a survey of 300 heads of IT in the
public and private sectors, comes after three years of economic
downturn during which IT chiefs have come under pressure to
demonstrate a quick return on IT investment to the board.
Only 25% of the IT directors surveyed said their ability to measure
and demonstrate the value of IT had a "significant impact" on their
own success at work.
Most respondents admitted that they struggled to measure the
benefits of IT investment, and 71% said their attempts to do so had
only been "somewhat" or "not" unsuccessful.
Criteria used by IT directors to measure the value of IT included
increased productivity (67%), and decreased costs (66%).
"I would have thought that demonstrating the value of IT would be
the number one objective of a CIO," said Neville Howard, technology
strategy partner at Deloitte & Touche. "It is staggering to
think only one in four IT directors think so.
Despite the growing importance of IT to business, only 9% of those
surveyed saw themselves as leading the development of business
strategy and 47% said they were involved in setting business goals
and budgets.
Philip Virgo, strategic adviser to the Institute for the Management
of Information Systems, said the findings reflected polarised views
on the role an IT director should take.
"There is a clear split between businesses," he said. "In one the
IT director is a business planner and technology adviser and in the
other they are the chief plumber in charge of a key utility, like
electricity, which the business could not operate without".