IT directors believe thecommunications gulf between business and IThas closed in the past year, research by Computer Weekly
has revealed.
The latest
CIO Index survey of 145 UK IT directors found that 94% say
communication between IT and the business is improving, up from 86%
a year ago. The survey also showed that 42% strongly agree that the
board understands the importance of IT to the business, an increase
of 10% from last year.
"There is an acceptance among CEOs that without an affinity with
IT they will never really be able to think strategically about IT
investments," said Kevin White, content director at IT directors
forum CIO-Connect.
The CIO Index revealed 39% of IT directors strongly agreed that
they feel sufficiently empowered by the board, compared with 26% in
2006. And 57% of those surveyed said IT management was getting onto
a more professional footing, up from 42% a year ago.
"This is extremely good news. At last IT practitioners are being
considered alongside accountants and lawyers as true
professionals," said David Tidey, head of information systems at
the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. "But figures are still
too low. IT must try harder to win the trust of the board and other
senior managers."
For a second year running, the CIO Index showed that 95% of IT
directors were optimistic that IT will provide more demonstrable
business value in the year to come. IT directors now have plenty of
opportunities to prove the
business value of IT in measurable terms without needing to
resort to "spurious calculations" of soft metrics, said White.
However, David Roberts, chief executive of the Corporate IT
Forum (Tif), said improved business-IT understanding did not
necessarily mean more CIOs were being promoted to board level.
"In today's governance-oriented environment, the composition of
boards is closely scrutinised to ensure balanced decision making,
so there is not necessarily room for individual experts like CIOs.
Boards are more likely to be made up of business managers with IT
knowledge," he said.
Improved communication also did not necessarily mean the gap
overall between business and IT was diminishing, said Roberts.
"This indicates more people are working at better communication,
but it is a big increase in one of the most difficult areas of IT
and more likely to reflect CIOs' expectations, rather than the
perception of business managers," he said.