The Role of IT in Business Strategy

While 86 percent of architecture, engineering and construction firms have found their IT advances to be profitable, close to two-thirds believe that its costs are too high, concludes a recent survey conducted by PSMJ Resources, Inc., Newton, Mass.

For firms where IT advances are initiated by top management, 69 percent believe that IT is expensive, but results are positive, whereas firms whose IT managers make IT strategy and investment and decisions, 53 percent of respondents indicated that they are satisfied with their IT systems, and 48 percent feel they are achieving significant savings.

“This indicates top management takes a more strategic approach than IT managers,” explained William Fanning, PSMJ’s director of research. “Top managers view IT spending as necessary to the success of their business strategy, and feel more satisfied with IT expenditures as a result.”

According to the survey, the median number of IT staff per 100 employees is one person. For firms with less than 50 employees, an IT specialist is often not hired.

For more information about PSMJ’s 2001 A/E Automation and Information Technology Survey , see www.psmj.com .

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