Information? You can wait!
Jinfo Blog

27th October 2010

By Tim Buckley Owen

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Two out of three IT managers admit that their companies are having to wait to receive critical data and many don’t seem to be doing much about it, according to recent research. And another report suggests that fading business confidence means they may not be given the new tools they need to do the job better. According to research commissioned by enterprise data integration specialist the Informatica Corporation, the average IT department is taking about four and a half days to deliver information requested by employees, even though more than half of IT managers recognise the need to manage data more effectively. Blaming their failure to do better on a lack of resource, over 40% of those polled cited either infrastructure complexity or the incompatibility of various databases within their organisation’s network as the root of the problem – and one in four actually said that they prioritised other IT tasks ahead of providing information to employees that needed it (http://digbig.com/5bcrka). It’s a pretty dismal prospect when companies are struggling to reach customers and markets cost effectively, especially as the report suggests that at least some IT managers are apathetic towards their businesses’ needs. Still it’s likely to mean more business for Informatica itself, which actually supplies solutions to the problem – and infopros might like to consider its implications too. Those IT managers who complain that they don’t have the resources to do the job better are unlikely to receive any respite soon, if another report from the technology consultant Gartner is to be believed. Many chief executives will pull back from more bullish investment and expansion bets in 2011 if confidence continues to decline, Gartner predicts – so most chief information officers should assume that they’ll get very limited increases in resources and will have to make do with what they have. Gartner has some wise words for canny CIOs. Make business initiative owners aware at the start of the year that they may risk losing IT resources to someone else; make sure the contribution to cash generation and cash flow acceleration is visible in the projects they do pursue; target at least one major business process to be revolutionised or obliterated in 2011 or 2012 (http://digbig.com/5bcrkb). It’s all excellent advice, and it applies equally to information managers – indeed, they’re probably at an advantage because, having faced up to doing more with less so many times before, they’re far less likely to whinge about lack of resource. And another Gartner report of earlier this year actually forecast a growing range of roles reporting into IT, including digital archivists and business information managers, prompting VIP LiveWire contributor Anne Jordan to predict (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27841) a cautiously rosy future – for some infopros at least.

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