Industry news

IT leaders need to boost information culture

Chief information officers (CIOs) and IT managers have been urged to create an information-centric culture within their organisations or risk suffering from poor decision makings, low productivity and falling profits.

This was the conclusion of a report by consultant Capgemini, which revealed that the majority of UK companies are suffering from weak information cultures, which cost an estimated £46 billion a year in lost opportunities.

According to computer business website IT Week, 80 per cent of CIOs surveyed by Capgemini identified the importance of fully utilising information as a key driver for business performance, but two thirds admitted they make fundamental daily decisions without the proper information at hand.

Ramesh Harji, head of intelligent enterprise at Capgemini, told the website: "Often information is an afterthought, especially for IT, but putting information at the heart of how you define and do business is important."

A recent report from Gartner indicated that CIOs will look for ways to improve business processes, business intelligence and information management in 2008, but remain worried about the lack of skilled talent entering the industry.