Europe's IT departments outperform the US

29-01-2008

by Stephen Errity

IT departments in Europe are significantly better than their US counterparts when it comes to providing services that directly benefit their business.

This is the main finding of a new global survey of CIOs undertaken by IT management firm CA, the results of which were released Tuesday. Certainly the survey is encouraging news for European IT staff, as they outscore the US in virtually every measurement of IT effectiveness, particularly when it comes to improving IT processes (Europe 51 percent, US 33 percent), improving services to end users (Europe 55 percent, US 44 percent), developing a proactive IT organisation (Europe 42 percent, US 27 percent), and making IT transparent and accountable to the business (Europe 49 percent, US 31 percent).

Speaking to ENN, CA's head of technical services for the UK and Ireland Colin Bannister said he was not surprised at the results. "I've noticed these trends both with customers and within our own organisation," he said. "The US has been slow to take up the concept of best practices in IT and there is also a more mature acknowledgment of the need for process improvement procedures in Europe."

Bannister added that companies in the US were also often faced with the difficulties that came with greater geographical dispersement than their European counterparts.

Other findings of the CA survey included how European businesses are trying to achieve business-IT alignment. Much greater assessment of IT change on business output was observed in the UK and Ireland, with one example being businesses starting to relate a server failure, not just to an availability figure, but to whether or not a customer got their order delivered.

There were also some notable discrepancies in what respondents felt were the main obstacles to aligning IT based on business priorities. A skills shortage was cited as the main barrier by 63 percent of US respondents but only 40 percent in Europe. A lack of funding and the level of difficulty involved were the most common barriers in Europe, with 42 percent of organisations citing each.

Europeans were also found to be significantly ahead of the US when it comes to defining business goals -- 41 percent of US respondents felt this was a key barrier opposed to just 20 percent in Europe.

The survey interviewed 300 CIOs working across the American, European and Asia-Pacific regions.