Over 92% of top IT decision makers in Europe feel their organisation is not exploiting the competitive advantages of Information Management.  This is one finding of the 2008 Pressure Point Index survey released today by HP at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit in Amsterdam.* 
 
Respondents were generally dissatisfied with the quality and delivery of information across their own organisations, with 67% admitting it was poor and inconsistent. 69% felt they did not get the right amount of information to make business decisions, with a mere 7% claiming to get all the information they required.

 “Many companies are sitting on data goldmines, but lack the necessary investment and ability to extract value from the information,” said Valerie Logan, worldwide leader, Information Management, Consulting & Integration, HP Services. “While senior IT executives recognise the potential competitive advantage contained in the data, they are hampered from investing in comprehensive information management programs by a number of factors, including complexity and management alignment”.

Despite clear recognition of the issue, respondents felt they were unable to turn data into business insight and exploit its business potential for a number of reasons. Almost 80% felt the implementation of new systems was too complex, 75% agreed it was difficult to build a business case for the investment, and 74% blamed dispersed and poorly managed data depositories.

At the same time, 67% of senior IT decision makers felt that the IT department was still perceived as a cost burden to the business. A variety of reasons were given for this view, including a lack of understanding amongst senior management of the benefits IT can bring to a business, and the fact that the IT department does not have a strong enough voice within the organisation.

“There is a clear need in large enterprises for CIOs to take action and ensure Information Management is placed at the heart of the business, and managed as a core strategic competence. Demonstrating the business case for effective Information Management and the unprecedented value it can provide in this information-based economy is an obvious way for CIOs to move up the value chain with their business counterparts. HP has a proven track record of helping our customers to develop and deliver BI strategies that return business value from start to finish,” said Logan.

* Survey methodology: HP commissioned Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates to conduct the 2008 Pressure Point Index survey. The survey methodology consisted of 234 in-depth interviews among senior business and IT decision-makers from companies with over 1000 employees across the UK, France, Germany and Italy during Nov-Dec 2007.