IT sector plagued with under-skilled staff

Insufficient IT staff availability, service delivery issues, and difficulty in proving the value of information technology (IT) continue to plague executives at IT organizations around the world, says a new report by the nonprofit, independent IT Governance Institute (ITGI).

ITGI commissioned a global survey of 749 CEO / CIO level executives in 23 countries to determine their IT governance priorities and their organizations' IT-related problems. According to the IT Governance Global Status Report 2008, which is available as a complimentary download at www.itgi.org, 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. Thirty percent of respondents also reported problems anticipating the return on investment (ROI) for IT expenditures.

The study is a follow-up to ITGI's 2003 and 2005 surveys and tracks IT governance trends over the past four years. Several important business developments relating to IT are identified in the report, including.

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

Fifty percent of respondents were aware of the Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) framework for IT governance, nearly doubling since 2005.

Alignment between IT strategy and corporate strategy is average, poor or very poor, feel 36 percent of respondents. According to the survey, the percentage of organizations that are in the process of implementing or have already implemented IT governance practices in different regions are: South America - 27 percent, Asia - 44 percent, Europe - 50 percent, and North America - 50 percent.

"The bottom line 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 of ITGI.