U.S. IT Departments Lag Behind Europe

A new study has shown that US It departments are outscored by other countries in almost every area.

Ever looked askance at the people in your IT department and thought they could do better? Evidently you’re not alone. A new study of CIOs by CA has shown that IT departments in the UK, Germany, Australia, and Japan outscored their US counterparts in most areas, Vnunet reports, but especially in improving IT processes and services to end users.   Colin Bannister, CA’s head of technical services in the UK, said,   "When you consider that only a third of US IT departments effectively manage the complexity of their IT environments, compared to over half in the UK, it makes it easier for them to take the next step to align IT with business goals. In the UK we see a much greater assessment of IT change on business output using process fundamentals.”   In other words, IT is more closely integrated with other areas of the business, rather than standing apart, allowing for better planning. One interesting fact to emerge from the study was that while 63% of US companies cited lack of skills as a problem in IT, only 40% of respondents in Germany and the UK made the same claim.