"What has IT ever done for business?"....... HDI.

The Help Desk Institute (HDI) and its Strategic Partners, HP, Hornbill and Touchpaper announce the top level findings of the unique research project "What has IT ever done for Business?" The research examined the tactical and strategic aspects of the role IT plays in a business and explores how well IT really aligns itself to organisations' needs and corporate objectives. The research also reports on how well IT and business work together when planning major projects and improvement initiatives both internally and externally to the organisation.

Howard Kendall, the Founder Director of the Help Desk Institute, commented. "The last few years has seen IT budgets constrained and in some instances reduced yet after human resource it remains the single most significant capital investment for most organisations. IT has become an operational back-bone but increasingly the business expects more. Business expects IT to provide standards for governance, to provide the means to manage line of business activities, to increase revenue and provide competitive advantage."

The research findings show a concerted attempt from sides to begin a greater level of collaboration which is obviously made much easier now infrastructure are stable and mature. The following is a snapshot of the research that presented as a white paper. The research sample was representative of the following key functions found within UK private and public sector organisation-IT Managers, IT Directors and Line of Business Managers.

* 43% of all surveyed agreed the purpose of IT is to provide infrastructure, applications and support aligned to business needs

* Over 50% of organisations use formal SLAs as a contract between IT and departments

* However 75% of IT departments are using formal KPI's and SLAs to measure their own performance. 55% are fully measuring system availability and a further 25% track key systems

* Of the 64% that report to the business formally, 37% use, or plan to use, corporate intranets to communicate IT delivery to the business

* 70% feel IT plays an integral role in project planning stages with the business and this is backed up with 62% of organisations that have direct representation at board level

* That said it still appears that many critical issues such as Capacity and Availability management are not considered board issues as over half of the organisations use steering committees and working parties to manage these issues and 11% have no formal process outside of IT. and Availability management are not considered board issues as over half of the organisations use steering committees and working parties tomanage these issues and 11% have no formal process outside of IT.

* 82% feel that IT is consulted about business expansion and many believe attitudes to involving IT are changing for the better.

* Over 75% of businesses currently run IT as a cost centre but only 56% felt that IT should control the IT budget. 30% felt it should be with the business and 14% said it should be shared with IT managing infrastructure and the business managing budget for desktop and line-of-business requirements felt that IT should control the IT budget. 30% felt it should be with the business and 14% said it should be shared with IT managing infrastructure and the business managing budget for desktop and line-of-business requirements

* Significantly the debate over outsourcing remains split. Just 38% felt business managers should not have the right to outsource core application services. 30% believed that business managers should be able to decide what constituted good value whereas a pragmatic 32% felt that outsourcing should be conducted on a best value/practice basis blending existing skills and resources with other specialist or cost effective suppliers. application services. 30% believed that business managers should be able to decide what constituted good value whereas a pragmatic 32% felt that outsourcing should be conducted on a best value/practice basis blending existing skills and resources with other specialist or cost effective suppliers.

* 51% stated that Availability of infrastructure and applications was central to any ROI calculation as it fundamentally ensured productivity and achievement of corporate/governance objectives by the business.

www.hdi.com