Senior IT executives can often be found bemoaning the division between their function and the wider business. Those complaints seem justified by the latest research which shows that IT is still struggling for board-level recognition.

A study of UK-based companies revealed that fewer than half (47%) have IT representation on the management board. For companies with more than 1,000 employees the number was even lower (44%).

And while 37% of large enterprises report that better alignment between IT and the business is a cornerstone of their current IT strategy, many respondents acknowledged that the division between IT and the business persists.

Those questioned were adamant that IT played a key role in driving business success: 83% of respondents report that application performance has a direct impact on the business; 76% report that delays to the introduction of new applications has a detrimental impact on the enterprise.