A survey by research firm Meta Group has found that South African IT portfolio management is on a par with that of the EMEA region and the US.
This emerged from a survey sent to participants in the Meta Group`s Metamorphosis conference last month. The survey, conducted before the event, was initiated to provide participants with critical data on current IT portfolio management practices, as well as insights into organisations` integration efforts.
"In terms of current IT portfolio management use, SA appears to be on par with EMEA and the US, with the exception of its use to help with risk/reward analysis and investment balance," says Peter Riches, MD of Meta Group.
"The majority of portfolio management initiatives are managed by the CIO, with 26% of cases involving a programme management office."
Riches says while relatively few South African organisations have implemented enterprise-wide IT portfolio management, nearly 46% of organisations have implemented IT portfolio management at some level.
The survey results also indicate that IT organisations want to cultivate a workforce that is highly trained and better able to handle change. Respondents indicated that the key personnel issues they face include a lack of project management and change management skills, along with a general lack of technical skills and leadership within the organisation.
The survey revealed that while IT process priorities are spread across several initiatives, most participants indicated that both strategic support to the business and operational excellence were key objectives.
Among the trends to emerge from the survey results were:
* 67% of respondents plan to enhance integration capabilities with Web services.
* 54% of respondents plan to deploy new applications.
* 77% of respondents plan to consolidate past investments.
* 51% of respondents plan to deploy a new infrastructure.
Nearly half the IT organisations surveyed indicated they plan their IT strategy no further than one year into the future and only one-third of organisations have a continuous IT asset retirement process as part of the budget cycle.
Nearly two-thirds of South African participants increased their IT budgets in the past year, compared to less than a third of participants from other regions.
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