Businesses failing to benefit from IT

Companies are failing to reap financial rewards from IT projects, research from the Cranfield School of Management has revealed.

Of more than 1,000 IT and business managers surveyed, 57 percent are not satisfied IT investments are adding value to the business and nearly a third can't say whether IT investments are benefiting the business.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said significant improvements within corporations would be necessary in order to derive value from IT investments — the same figure from a similar Cranfield School of Management survey conducted 10 years ago.

So why are businesses stuck in this valueless void with IT? The survey found most enterprises do not make the kind of process changes — such as, for example, altering the organisation of IT projects — necessary to enjoy full financial benefits from the new technology.

Managers are not learning from their mistakes either, with four-fifths reporting that their review and evaluation of completed projects is inadequate.

Professor John War of the Cranfield School of Management said it's "disturbing" to find so little difference between the two surveys, conducted a decade apart.

He added that few organisations appear to be doing anything to increase the value they obtain from IT.