In a survey of 500 departments by network equipment provider Cisco, only 32% of organisations said they had lost confidence in their ability to meet their original goals in 2009; these companies were also more likely to describe their approach to business as “cautious”. Meanwhile, 84% of companies proclaiming themselves “cutting edge” said they were confident of achieving their IT goals for the year.
IT directors said the largest ‘reality gaps’ between their IT strategies and actual achievement were in core infrastructure areas, particularly network performance and security. The latter was also the most likely to trigger time and budget challenges – in fact, only 30% said achieving their security objectives was going to be straightforward.
The survey also found that IT departments are considered to contribute the most business value in the finance sector, with 79% of businesses expressing a formal alignment between business and IT objectives, ahead of the technology sector at 62%. The average across all industries surveyed was 56%.
