Business leaders obsessed with cost reduction


21 Jul 2005

Cost reduction was cited as the single most important driver by Irish business leaders for IT investment in information and document management with 43pc saying it was the main driver, a survey from the Association for Information and Image Management, the international association for enterprise content management reveals.

The survey of Irish businesses found that the next most important driver was customer service with just over a third — up from a quarter last year — noting it as the most important factor.

Compliance factors continue to be important but less so when compared to last year with 18pc of Irish business leaders indicating these factors were the main driver for IT investment in information and document management (down from 27pc last year).

The survey also found Irish businesses are more focused on investing in IT to improve customer service than any other country surveyed, including the US.

Ciarán Kelly, senior manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “After a number of years of lower levels of investment in IT and information management as a whole, Irish companies are once again recognising the value of information to measure organisational performance, assist in strategic decision making and to assist in the provision of enhanced customer service.

“Alongside this, there is the clear recognition that effective information management projects are as much about managing the ‘people’ or ‘change’ element as they are about the technology,” Kelly said.

The survey also found 50pc of respondents cited document control and records management as likely IT projects for the next 12 months — the highest from a list of 22 possible IT investment.

Some 15pc of businesses were not confident that if challenged, they could demonstrate their electronic information is accurate, accessible and reliable.

Managing change was found to be a bigger impediment (34pc) than justifying a return on investment (24pc) for information management projects.

By John Kennedy