Key Information Technology and Management Issues 2010–11: An International Study

The importance of the impact of IT for organizations around the world, especially in light of the global financial crisis, has amplified the need to provide a better understanding of the specific geographic similarities and differences of IT managerial and technical trends. Going beyond identifying these influential factors is also the need to understand the considerations for addressing them, in light of recognizing the respective local characteristics, especially when operating in a globally linked environment. By comparing and contrasting different geographies, this paper presents important local and international factors (e.g., management concerns, influential technologies, budgets/spending, organizational considerations) necessary to prepare IT leaders for the challenges that await them. The research is based on data from four geographic regions (United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America). The same questionnaire (although translated for the respective respondents), based on the lead authors of the well-respected and long-running Society for Information Management survey, was applied across geographies. This paper presents the major findings based on survey responses from 472 organizations (172 US, 142 European, 103 Asian, and 55 Latin) in mid-2010. The top five management concerns were: (1) business productivity and cost reduction; (2) IT and business alignment; (3) business agility and speed to market; (4) business process re-engineering; and (5) IT reliability and efficiency. The five most influential technologies were business intelligence, cloud computing, enterprise resource planning, Software as a Service/Platform as a Service, and collaborative tools.