UK companies floundering with no IT strategy

Nearly a third of medium-sized companies in the UK have no IT strategy and a further third work to an "informal loose plan".

That's according to a survey released Tuesday by market research firm Dynamic Markets, which was commissioned by IT service management firm Partners in IT.

The survey, entitled IT Service Management - Is It Worth the Money?, also revealed that only 18 per cent of respondents had a formal IT plan and only 16 per cent planned their IT investments on a three-to-five year timeline.

Fifty-five per cent of business managers in the companies surveyed believe that their IT set-up isn't providing good value for money. With no tangible IT strategy in place, 85 per cent of these organisations are not always buying best-in-class technology and in 65 per cent of cases, the various IT systems (accounts, marketing, sales, etc.) are operating independently of each other.

"For companies of this size, it is critical to be able to retain control of their IT spending and investment," said Paul Cash, managing director of Partners in IT.

Cash blames a lack of IT strategies for the fact that 68 per cent of respondents are finding their IT costs unpredictable and 33 per cent believing that their IT infrastructure costs are too much to maintain.

"In order for IT to truly deliver value to the bottom line of the business, it's imperative for the organisation to get a handle on the technology in which it has invested - both in terms of maintenance and management - and develop a concrete IT strategy to bring the company's technology more in-line with the growth of the business now and long-term," he concluded.

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