Johannesburg, 11 Nov 2004
There is a serious misalignment between company objectives and IT strategies in SA and other countries in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, according to new research commissioned by BMC Software.
A new survey by the Winmark research consultancy released at the BMC Software Forum in Sandton yesterday, reveals that 56% of SA`s IT directors believe their business and IT strategies are not aligned, often resulting in costly failures.
The research was carried out between May and July 2004 and sampled 447 companies across the EMEA region, including 25 from SA.
"A communication gap appears to be at the heart of the problem, with SA being among the worst offenders," says Brian Whittaker, UKMEA BMC MD. "Leadership is an issue because CEOs are not getting the message across to IT."
Only Italy (64%) and Spain (58%) recorded higher levels of misalignment between business and IT, followed closely by the UK (52%). The most aligned countries are Israel (72%) and the Nordic countries (64%).
"Only 32% of those questioned in SA believed that changes in business objectives were communicated quickly enough for the IT function to respond effectively," says Whittaker.
The survey shows 16% of South African IT decision-makers claimed that changes were either not communicated or communicated only informally, and 44% felt they did not spend enough time with their CEOs to understand what was required from their IT function.
"The impact of this communication gap is significant, with 62% of South African companies questioned reporting losses of between R400 000 and R80 million as a result of IT failures," says Whittaker.
South African companies were shown as being among those in the region most likely to change business objectives at least once a year.
Arjen Wiersma, BMC Software SA business development manager, says the Winmark research reinforces BMC`s mission to help companies align IT requirements with their business strategies.
"While everyone agrees with the theory of aligning business and IT, this rarely happens in practice, resulting in unnecessary cost and undermining service levels and returns," says Wiersma.
Wiersma concludes that the results of the survey constitute a call to action for companies to communicate their business strategy to their IT departments so that IT infrastructures are built to support business objectives.
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