The IT/business disconnect

08.11.2005
Last week, BMC Software Inc. and its South Africa master distributor, African Legend Indigo (AL Indigo), hosted the BMC Forum 2005, where BMC Software launched a management guide - "Bridging the communications gap" - to assist local companies to address the misalignment between business and IT.

The guide, according to BMC corporate strategist, Peter Armstrong, is based on the findings of a 2004 study that highlights a serious misalignment between the objectives of the board, and requirement of the IT function in selected countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and was created in consultation with business leader and author, David Taylor.

The pan-EMEA survey, incorporating the views of 500 IT directors, reveals that 70 percent of respondents attribute the misalignment between business and IT strategies to poor communication.

'10bn losses

It also revealed that South Africa is the third least aligned country in EMEA, with 56 percent of SA IT directors believing that their business and IT strategies are not aligned, and a massive 62 percent of them questioning reported losses of between '50,000 (US$59,060) and '10 billion as a direct result of IT failures.

Armstrong says: "What we aim to do with this guide is to get CIOs to understand what IT can do for the business." He notes that more CIOs are appointed from the business side of the industry, and not as previously, from the IT side, which in effect leaves them not knowing the abilities of the IT department and possibilities it can offer.