By Andy McCue, 27 September 2004 17:30
NEWS The IT industry was put in the dock and accused of failing UK plc today in a live version of CIO Jury at the silicon.com CIO Forum.
Author, broadcaster and former CIO Rene Carayol put forward the case for the prosecution, arguing that the boardrooms of UK businesses have lost faith in IT.
"Twenty-odd years of credibility more or less disappeared overnight after Y2. Then we spent even more than we did on Y2K [in the dot-com boom]. The IT industry has failed and failed miserably. When are we going to start adding value?"
Carayol argued that a large proportion of IT spend is spent putting right what should have worked in the first place.
"How much are we spending on fixing what we bought in the first place? We're signing cheques because we feel we have to," he said. "When did you last come up with the business case that over-delivered?"
He also pointed the finger at the IT bosses themselves and suggested CIO should almost stand for 'career is over'.
Arguing in defence of the UK IT industry was John Woodget, deputy president of Intellect and UK MD of Intel.
"We have managed to deliver enormous efficiencies for the global economies. The world is a lot better place because of our industry," he said.
The CIO panel also accused the IT industry of failing UK businesses now despite the benefits it has delivered in the past.
John Yard, consultant and former director of business systems at the Inland Revenue, said: "What worries me is the over-promise and under-deliver."
Paul Coby, CIO at British Airways, said he'd like to see fewer salespeople and more businesspeople from IT vendors.
But Paul Heard, CIO at DaimlerChrysler UK, argued it is the business that needs to change and not the IT industry.
"The business needs to improve its understanding of IT," he said.
On a final vote, however, the CIO Jury called the IT industry 'not guilty' of failing UK plc by three votes to one. Yet the audience seemed less convinced and a quick show of hands produced almost the opposite verdict by the same margin.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Gary Thompson
It is very easy to blame IT for failings in bad systems implementation - but when do we see middle and senior management taking responsibility for not properly viewing IT as a business tool - not a panacea for Business improvement. If companies don't buy the right tools because they don't actually know what they want them to actually do, how can they ever meet ANY expectations ? The old adage still holds true - a bad workman always blames his tools...
2. Dick Winchester
It is also entirely reasonable to say that the IT industry has failed to assist in the development of a UK technology sector. The old adage about nobody getting fired for buying IBM still rings true. Even large scale projects like the NHS programme have failed miserably in this respect yet go anywhere in Europe and particularly in the USA and they would see such opportunities as means of providing their tech companies with a leg up. Look at BT for example - pretty much every darn ADSL DSLAM in their exchanges is built by Alcatel... Whoopee! Wasn't that a fillip for UK industry.. The UK IT industry needs to get just a little more UK centric.. Everyone else does so why don't we.
3. anonymous
I know you cannot generalise and in many cases IT departments have been their own worst enemy but I would like to respond to some of the points.
1. Y2K may have been a waste of money but so is car insurance until you have a crash. I certainly wouldn't deal with a company who hadn't taken "pragmatic" precautions for Y2K. I can name many companies who kept costs well within a reasonable upgrade policy and fended of glib talking and expensive consultancies (which I belonged to at the time)
2. So called dot-com boom was the plaything of non technical entrepreneurs and consultancies who sold hype rather than delivered
3. As for the Boardroom many boards would never invest in the level of infrastructure required to support their business they were too focused on their bonuses to think outside the current year's return. Now they expect IT to carry the can
Ego always seems to win over a true partnership at the end of the day "IT" and "the others" should all share common goals and common rewards.
4. Justin Davies
Quite simply, there needs to be a better alignment between business requirements and IT implementations.
This needs better cooperation (and maybe tools) between managers, business analyst and IT people
5. Theodore Odeluga
"Boardrooms of UK businesses have lost faith in IT..."
But it doesn't stop the boards of UK businesses approving of initiatives to outsource.
Maybe the truth should be admitted:
"UK IT staff are still among the best in the world but the trouble is our profits are suffering, so let's sacrifice them and not our profits".
6. Elizabeth Hall
For too long this business has been salesman driven with all the focus on the sales process. There are companies in the UK who are solution driven ie We turn up with software and you can see what it does. The market forces unfortunately influence too heavily the purchasers. If you are big and do the entertaining bit well people buy. There are diamonds in the UK PLC IT delivery business. You just have to find them.If I knew the answer to finding them we wouldnt have such an IT failure rate in UK.
While people dont know what they are buying and people are measured on the sale not the success of implementation how will things change?
7. Dr J Barry Mckinnon
A huge amount of the industry oversells. We are a design and systems integration house. A large proportion of what we buy in as components or as tools simply does not meet a reasnable interpretation of specification. Our customers seem to expect our stuff to work, which we think is not unreasonable. We would have a much easier life if stuff "Does what it says on the tin"