A lack ofIT skillsis affecting more than a
third of companies worldwide, according to a global survey by
theIT Governance Institute
(ITGI).
The survey of more than 700 chief executives and chief
information officers at companies in 23 countries including the UK,
found that 38% reported problems relating to inadequate skills.
"Despite recent economic news and employee layoffs, we are
seeing an increased demand for qualified information technology
professionals throughout the industry," said Lynn Lawton,
international president of ITGI.
Lawton told Computer Weekly that although organisations were
upgrading their systems at an increasing rate driven by the high
rate of economic growth and mergers and acquisitions in the past
two years, the skills of employees were not keeping pace.
"It is the job of boards and management teams to work out what
is required to support and sustain the business, which includes the
availability of skills to maintain IT systems," she said.
Many organisations are turning to
outsourcing and offshoring, but Lawton said these were short
term solutions and better alignment between corporate and IT
governance would serve organisations in the longer term.
The survey showed 93% of respondents said IT was somewhat to
very important to corporate strategy and 72% of non-IT respondent
said that IT was very important to value creation.
Lawton said the results showed that most organisations were
aware of the importance of better alignment between business and
IT, but many did not know how to go about achieving it, with only
36% of respondents claiming to have done so.
The
solution, said Lawton, was to implement frameworks and best
practices for the governance of IT investments such as the control
objectives for information and related technology (Cobit) and the
ITGI’s Val IT.
“Tools
such as these will help organisations struggling to achieve
alignment to look at what they have got, what they are planning to
do, and where the business value is coming from to decide what to
keep, what to kill and where to focus.
The
survey showed awareness of IT governance and Cobit has almost
doubled from 25% in 2005, but Lawton said there was still a long
way to go with almost half of European companies not yet started
and only 16% of respondents using Cobit.