Top IT professionals are winning the battle to prove the
value of IT to their businesses, the latest research by Computer
Weekly reveals.
Computer Weekly's
CIO Index, a
survey of more than 100 chief information officers and IT
directors, shows that 77% believe it is getting easier to show how
IT helps their companies - a rise of 66% since February last
year.
Ben Booth, global chief technology officer at polling and market
research group Ipsos, said the findings reflect the rise of a new
generation of business-focused IT directors.
"There has been a
change in the sort of people who become CIOs in successful
organisations. They are good communicators and have experience in
running part of the business. They might not necessarily have a
technical background," he said.
The research, conducted in May, reveals that IT directors are
being more proactive in measuring the value of IT projects to their
companies. Some 54% of IT directors said they were systematically
measuring the business benefits of their work, up from 42% six
months ago.
At the same time, communications between IT and the business are
improving, according to 92% of the IT chiefs surveyed.
And most CIOs are confident that their board of directors
understands the importance of IT, with 38% agreeing strongly that
this is the case. Their relationship with the board enables them to
optimise the value of their technology investment, said 70% of the
IT leaders surveyed.
Paul Stevens, vice-president for information technology at
GlaxoSmithKline, said that businesses were now more open to
evidence of IT's value - if IT directors were courageous enough to
demand that IT should have as much credit as any other
department.
Mike McElwee, ICT director at
English Heritage, said there were very few senior managers who
did not see IT as necessary to the business. "There is greater
acceptance nowadays that IT is core to any business change," he
said.
Tracking the benefits of IT and business change projects is
becoming more commonplace and rigorous, said Jos Creese, advisory
group member of IT directors group The Corporate IT Forum and CIO
of Hampshire County Council.
"However, I still think we have got a long way to go," he said.
"If you ask most organisations to quantify the value of their
annual IT investment in terms of business outcomes, rather than
traditional IT terms, some will still struggle."
More findings
from the CIO Index >>
David Taylor's IT leadership blog >>
New starts in IT lack business acumen, says e-skills
>>
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