Forrester: Dissatisfied business execs frequently clash with IT

Computerworld - A third of the 437 business executives surveyed recently by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. are dissatisfied with the performance of their IT departments.
The survey also found that the dissatisfied group was more likely to fight with IT departments for control of IT initiatives. These executives also felt that their companies lag in the adoption of emerging technologies such as content management and supply chain management systems. In addition, they face higher IT project failure rates than peers who are happy with their IT shops, said Meredith Child, a Forrester analyst and co-author of the report.
Since this is the first time Forrester has posed these questions to business leaders, it's difficult to draw historical comparisons to executive satisfaction with IT.
However, "if you ran this study in 1995, I bet the numbers might be flipped -- that 66% would have been dissatisfied with their IT groups," said Steve Andriole, a senior consultant at Cutter Consortium in Arlington, Mass., and an MIS professor at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa.
Since the economic downturn that began in late 2000, IT managers have had to work more closely with business leaders to cost-justify IT investments for their organizations, said Andriole. Generally speaking, IT managers "have gotten smarter about defending their IT budgets," he said. "I would be optimistic about the [Forrester] findings and expect satisfaction rates to go up beyond 66%."
Others were a bit more skeptical about the results from the Forrester study. "This is a subject that goes a lot deeper than some of the simple correlations that [Forrester] built," said Cedric Rhoads, the former director of information systems at Matsushita Avionics Systems Corp., a Bothell, Wash.-based firm that provides in-flight communications and entertainment systems to the airline industry.
Before becoming a product manager for a new aircraft ground IS group formed by the company two months ago, Rhoads eight months ago helped create an IT steering committee that includes leaders from the company's five major business units, the chief financial officer and the chief technology officer. Currently, the steering committee is putting together a framework for IT project review, funding and status, said Rhoads.
The company's' IT organization "had a history of working in the background," said Rhoads. Now, the steering committee can help the company's business units and IT department partner on critical projects, he said.
Alignment between business units and IT is an age-old problem, said John Parkinson, chief technologist for the Americas at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in Chicago. As such, "why would anybody