Only a minority of companies are successfully using IT to achieve competitive business growth, according to analyst firm Gartner.

This time last year, Gartner predicted a shift in focus for chief information officers (CIOs) from operations management to more directly supporting business competitiveness.

But it now says organisations are failing to deliver on that promise because simply providing high-quality IT services is still proving difficult.

‘It is a really big challenge and there is a lot of room for improvement in this area,’ said analyst David Aron in advance of the release of Gartner’s 2007 CIO Agenda report this month.

‘CIOs have been wrestling with business intelligence and business process as ways of contributing to the business growth,’ he told Computing.

Aron predicts that CIOs will need to continue to focus on IT contributing to growth throughout 2007.

‘Only a minority of companies such as Wal-Mart and Capital One are clearly using IT to contribute to business differentiation,’ he said.

CIOs must develop a closer relationship with their business counterparts to show how they can contribute to the organisation, says Aron.

‘The most successful CIOs spend a lot of time managing the expectations of their business colleagues to stimulate an appetite for more,’ he said.

Paul Broome, CIO at online information provider 192.com, says IT has always played a significant role in supporting growth and competitiveness.

‘It has always been the case for any CIO with a business mind to do more than simply managing operational processes, because IT is about supporting and growing any business,’ he said.

192.com will continue to invest in business intelligence applications in 2007, expanding measurement and reporting tools to support better decisions, says Broome.

Mobile workforce enablement is another priority for the firm, after issuing BlackBerrys to its sales team in 2006. It is also looking at collaborative working and has developed an in-house wiki for development projects.

‘Forget the fancy tools. A good open-source wiki can help a business work better internally and with other businesses by allowing us to share knowledge and manage change,’ said Broome.

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Further reading:

CIO’s role set for major changes