The black hole known as IT

There is an article in this morning's subscription-only Australian Financial Review (Boards falling into the IT black hole Information, Page 20) citing an international study by KPMG, reporting that 86 percent of 600 companies surveyed saw losses of up to 25% on the expected benefits from technology projects.

The report found that few organisations were able to accurately detail the total cost of technology budgets, nor the true extent of budget overruns.. Moreover, the report found that CEOs were increasingly seeking control over the initial budgetting and approval of majot technology projects, but failed to follow them to completion.

The report concluded that most company boards wanted to approve and participate in technology projects, however failed to understand how to align their business outcomes with these projects.

This comes on top of on article a few weeks ago that said that Australian company boards should have at least one director with technology and IT experience, given the importance - and size - of technology to companies. At the very least, boards should appoint external advisers to sit at board level to assist with technology decisions and education.

From Wiliam's perspective, It would be fair to say that while many of our clients have a reasonably strong grasp of technology and apply it accordingly, many do not. This is even clearer when it comes to a business' website, because it is often the CEO that champions the development of a website, but with a poor grasp of how websites are developed, maintained and promoted.

We provide good advise and strategy to our clients, though there are still too many "I told you so" and "are you really sure you want to do that" situations, equating to lost time and money.

As technology and web because more and more important, businesses need to either engage the internal resources to help educate, plan, develop and implement technology, or turn to external organisations and consultants with the experience to do so.