Survey: Top IT priorities are alignment, staffing

The Society for Information Management's annual survey of CIOs and senior IT managers has found that IT business alignment remains of paramount concern, while recruiting and retaining top talent also continue remain high priorities. CIO Insight reports that survey author Jerry Luftman, of Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, believes IT executives understand IT-business alignment better than in the past. He notes, however, that the corporate leaders too often see IT as subservient to business processes.

"IT and business should be partners," he said. "It drives me nuts when people talk about IT aligned with business and not with each other." Luftman added that some business leaders think they know more about IT than they really do, and he urged CIOs to help educate business executives how to better understand and leverage IT.

The survey of more than 350 company executives also found IT managers were more concerned with finding than retaining business-tech talent. Attracting new IT pros ranked No. 4 on the priority list, while retaining existing talent was ranked No. 8. "It is relatively clear that the pipeline of available, adequately skilled people is not as strong as the demand for resources," Luftman said.

For more on the survey:
- see this CIO Insight article