Business collaboration the UK’s top IT challenge in
2008, says Touchstone Group survey
07 November 2007: The single biggest technology challenge
faced by businesses in 2008 is how to access and share business
information within the company, according to a survey by software
and services company, Touchstone Group.
More than 40 per cent of those surveyed by
Touchstone said that IT to support collaboration across the
business was the most important demand on IT. Demonstrating
business value was the second concern (19 per cent), with customer
relationship management (CRM) coming third (18 per cent).
Corporate spend control was in fourth place (16 per cent) and
innovation fifth (three per cent).
The survey also revealed a positive outlook
for the IT sector across the UK, with just over 57 per cent of IT
decision makers planning an increase in their IT investment over
the next 12 months, with 17 per cent planning a ‘significant’
increase (more than 10 per cent of budget). Just over 35 per
cent expected their investment to stay the same, with only five per
cent expecting a decrease in investment.
Adrian McNay, Group Board Director, Touchstone
Group, believes that UK businesses are in possession of huge
amounts of valuable data that is not always immediately accessible
to staff within the company: “In ever-more competitive markets it
is vital to be able to retrieve business information
immediately. Collaboration across the company, particularly
across different countries, is important in order to be able to
plan and make effective business decisions.”
The survey also showed a trend towards buying
‘best of breed’ technologies from system integrators or services
companies (42 per cent), against buying a single ERP solution from
one supplier (33 per cent). Just over 24 per cent prefer to
buy direct from software authors.
Touchstone surveyed 250 IT directors and
managers from mid-to-large enterprises, at its annual conference,
held at the end of September 2007.