Leader: Don't let compliance blues drag you down

Red tape has always been an irritation to businesses but the increasing compliance burden is starting to weigh heavily on senior executives - which may be bad news for IT departments.

Recent research shows nine out of 10 top execs surveyed moan that the costs of compliance will rise and the benefits are outweighed by the problems.

And a separate piece of research published earlier this week revealed that banks aren't preparing for the latest round of regulations because they can't see the business benefits around Basel II.

Many banks still have much work to do around building the IT necessary to comply with the regulations - and the costs are rising as well. So it's not surprising that banks are less enthusiastic about it than they were last year. And it shows that regulators need to do a better job of explaining why all this extra work is important.

It's worrying that chief executives and finance directors are starting to question the benefits of these compliance projects - any upgrade like this will hit hard times if those in charge don't believe in it.

Support from the top is vital for the success of any project, and this is especially true of tech projects. But there are a few reasons for optimism.

Every time organisations are forced to make changes to their systems there is the chance to fix other nagging problems, or to modify processes to benefit the business.

Perhaps now is the time for IT bosses to start looking for the benefits beyond slavish compliance that can be created through these projects.

Maybe with a little added twist the technology being implemented for compliance can help the business in another way, such as improving the customer experience or boosting efficiency.

Business managers are unlikely to spot these opportunities, so it is down to the sharp-eyed CIO to see where a dull (but expensive and time consuming) compliance project can be turned into something more interesting.

A little bit of extra thought may be the way to get the chief executive or finance boss back on side - which could save the entire project from getting bogged down.