IT Sector Plagued With Insufficiently Skilled Staff

The IT Governance Institute (ITGI), a non-profit organization, commissioned a
global survey of 749 CEO/CIO-level executives in 23 countries to determine
executives' IT governance priorities and the IT-related problems their
organizations have faced so far. According to the IT Governance Global Status
Report 2008, 58 percent of respondents noted an insuffi­cient number of staff,
compared to 35 percent in 2005.

Also, 48 percent said that IT service delivery problems remain the second
most common problem, and 38 percent point to problems relating to staff with
inadequate skills. 30 percent of respondents also reported problems anticipating
the return on investment (RoI) for IT expenditures.

As per the study, 93 percent of respondents said that IT is somewhat very
important in the overall corporate strategy and is always on the board agenda,
according to 32 percent of res­pon­dents-up from 25 percent in 2005. And 18
percent of respon­dents said the IT department always informs about the
potential business opportunities, up from 14 percent in 2005.

Improvement needed

Areas for improvement include alignment-36 percent of respondents reported
that alignment between IT strategy and corporate strategy is some­where between
average to very poor. Additionally, implemen­tation of IT governance-related
activities varies around the globe.

The percentage of organiza­tions that are in the process of implementing or
have already implemented IT governance practices in different regions are South
America at 27 percent, Asia at 44 percent, Europe at

50 percent and North America at 50 percent.

“The bottomline is that many organizations around the world are needlessly
sacrificing money, productivity and competitive advantage by not implementing
effective IT governance,” said Lynn Lawton, International President, ITGI.
“Well-governed enterprises have been shown to provide a better return to
stakeholders, and the same goes for governance over IT. Executives need to
direct their IT for optimal advantage, manage IT-related risks and measure the
value provided by IT.”

Survey methodology

The ITGI Global Status Report is based on the findings of a worldwide survey
conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 23 countries from July 2007 to Oct
2007. Researchers contacted CIOs and CEOs. The total number of interviews
conducted was 749 of which, 652 were from a random sample of organizations. The
total results reported are at the 95 percent confidence level with a margin of
error of approximately four percent.

DQC News Bureau