Bored waiting for your service-orientated architecture to deliver cost savings? Then get yourself an ICC, says Gartner. As part of the IT industry's never-ending search for - and creation of - three letter acronyms (or TLAs), the analyst defines an ICC as:

"Integration competency centres (ICCs) - or service-orientated architecture (SOA) centres of excellence - can help companies achieve significant cost savings. The ICC carries out projects with high business value, such as integrating the processes of order-to-cash, loan origination or claims adjudication across disparate applications and systems."

Gartner's findings suggest the ICC is one TLA that should not be sniffed at, with the average centre producing impressive results:

• ICCs can save an average of 30 per cent in integration application and data interface development time and costs
• Centres can also save 20 per cent in maintenance costs and achieve 25 per cent reuse of integration components
• With integration projects typically costing between $250,000 and $1,000,000, potential savings can reach $100,000 or more

Gartner says it takes a considerable amount of time – typically two to three years – before SOA services cover enough application functionality to cut IT costs. Given the hype surrounding SOA, such timelines can be frustrating.

The good news is organisations that funnel SOA work through an ICC/centre of excellence approach are likely to see results sooner, says Paolo Malinverno, research vice president at Gartner:

“Every IT department of any size should have an ICC. Its benefits quickly outweigh any organisational challenges that must be addressed while the ICC is created.  ICCs/SOAs centres of excellences are absolutely vital in every SOA project out of the pilot stage.”

Further reading

• IT needs to show the boss it means business
• Depressed technology professionals need a boost
• Is IT always a business issue?
• The end of computer science?
• Is studying computer science a waste of time?
• The adventures of a technology career

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

What is the IT department actually responsible for? Technology experts are keen to suggest responsibility for a range of IT issues should pass to “the business”.

Take data quality, for example, which sounds like a core technology issue. Not so, says Gartner analyst and research vice president Ted Friedman: “Data quality is a business issue, not an IT matter, and it requires the business to take responsibility and drive improvements.”

Friedman suggests a marketing specialist should act as a data steward, keeping data “complete, correct, consistent, honest and not redundant”.

What about service-oriented architecture (SOA), which is a complex issue at the best of times and involves specific concentration on data and integration.

Once again, the business is crucial, says IDC research manager Jan Duffy: “The lines between IT and business are so blurred that they almost do not exist when it comes to adopting something like SOA.”

I could go on ­ comments about the business needing to run technology, or technology being part of the business, are common.

But are such sentiments get out of jail cards; basically a simple, shorthand method for explaining away a complex IT issue?

Worse, is the industry doing itself a disservice and helping to hasten the demise of the IT organisation and a series of senior technology positions?

Computing recently reported that further investment in business technology and skills could boost the UK economy by £35bn, according to the latest research from sector skills council e-Skills UK.

The IT sector is expanding at such a rate that 140,000 new staff will be needed annually for the next five years to fill high-level positions, on top of the 1.5 million people already employed in the industry.

But two significant problems are manifest: many students are not interested in IT and many firms are not taking technology seriously enough.

UK applications to IT-related degrees have fallen by 50 per cent in the past five years. And just 35 per cent of technology leaders now report to the chief executive, according to Harvey Nash and PA Consulting.

Nothing is going to improve until the IT industry starts taking itself seriously and recognises technology matters for business, not the other way round.

Further reading

• Depressed technology professionals need a boost
• Is IT always a business issue?
• The end of computer science?
• Is studying computer science a waste of time?
• The adventures of a technology career

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

What is the IT department actually responsible for? It seems technology experts are increasingly keen to suggest responsibility for IT should pass to "the business" (seen End Note).

Take data quality - which sounds to me like a core IT issue. No, says Gartner analyst and research vice president Ted Friedman: “Data quality is a business issue, not an IT matter, and it requires the business to take responsibility and drive improvements." Friedman suggests a marketing specialist could act as a data steward and keep marketing data "complete, correct, consistent, honest and not redundant".

Or take service oriented architecture (SOA) - which is a complex issue at the best of times and certainly involves a great deal of data and integration. Once again, "the business" is key, says IDC research manager Jan Duffy: "The lines between IT and business are so blurred that they almost don't exist when it comes to adopting something like SOA."

I could go on - comments about "the business" needing to run technology and technology being part of "the business" are pretty much ten-a-penny. But are such sentiments get out of jail cards; basically a simple method for explaining away a complex issue?

Go on, do a random search for a CIO interview. I bet it says something in the vein of: "the business needs to run IT". Good luck to the business, I say. But where do such practices leave the IT organisation? Especially once all the basic coding tasks have been offshored around the world.

End Note - "The Business" is a turn of phrase that makes me sound like I'm trying to create a parody of Hale & Pace - which I'm not, because:

• I have never watched the Hale & Pace comedy show, but I have had the dubious pleasure of having to listen to idiots quote bits from their TV shows, like "the business"
• And I had not thought about Gareth Hale and Norman Pace for about ten years until they appeared briefly on last year's Extras Christmas special - and until now, when I wrote "the business"

Further reading

• CIOs will sacrifice IT contractors in downturn plan
• The end of computer science?
• Is studying computer science a waste of time?
• Don't study IT if you want to be a CIO
• The adventures of a technology career

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

IT leaders are continually being told - or are telling others - that technology is one of the key factors during a successful merger and acquisition (M&A) initiative. Technology should be crucial, I guess - two organisations, with two different methods of working, bringing together two different sets of systems and information.

And in the wonderful world of web 2.0, the test of successful technology M&A integration is only set to become increasingly complicated. More and more unstructured content will reside in collaborative formats, such as email, web conferencing and social networking.

All of which makes new research from Bloor, NCC and Informatica - that demonstrates the impact of IT on the M&A process - both worrying and surprising. In short, the research shows technology leaders face a problematic period:

• As much as 79 per cent of M&A activity ignores IT integration
• Fifty per cent of IT leaders said their newly merged entity had no integration within three months
• More than one-third did of chief information officers (CIOs) did not expect integration to be complete within two years of the M&A deal, or could not say when integration would be complete
• Poor documentation of systems, a lack of metadata, diverse and uncontrolled data sources and poor data quality were all reported as significant problems by 54 per cent of CIOs

So, the big problems are: M&A activity ignores IT; integration is slow - very slow; and there is a large amount of poor quality documentation and data. The answer, says Graham Nugent - IT legacy and strategy manager at parcel delivery specialist UPS, is a broad mixture of due-diligence, team-building and strategising. Do not, he says, underestimate the people side:

"You will be combining two sets of workers with totally different company cultures and visions. Communicate everything twice, and when you have done that, do it again just to make sure everyone is on board and feels as if they are part of the new team. Then you will reap the rewards," says Nugent.

M&A integration without tears: How to make a success of integrating an acquisition’s IT

Rather than looking bright, it would be fair to say that the future of the chief information officer (CIO) looks murky.

Technology leaders have always been forced to fight their corner, often struggling to receive wider company recognition and a place on the board.

But the tussle was bought into sharp focus recently, when high street giants Boots and House of Fraser announced plans to phase out the IT director role following major infrastructure overhauls.

Experts suggest they might not be alone, with other firms likely to stick with existing systems and place more responsibility on the chief financial officer.

Just 35 per cent of technology leaders now report to the chief executive, according to a recent survey from recruitment firm Harvey Nash and PA Consulting.

For technology leaders that are accountable to the chief executive, the pressure to perform quickly grows even stronger.

Research from service provider EDS and research specialist Populus shows the average CIO stays in position for just 38 months ­ hardly enough time to impress the boss with leading-edge business technology projects.

So where do such pressures leave the CIO? Are we about to see a reduction in the power of the technology leader?

This month’s Computing Business cover story suggests plenty of optimism remains, despite these concerns.

Take House of Fraser, whose chief finance officer, Stefan Cassar, says organisations can still benefit from having technology representation in the boardroom.

While Cassar has assumed responsibility for technology spend, he is now assisted by two new IT director roles ­ one for solutions and one for services.

Technology leaders should take note. In a finance-focused environment, CIOs should ensure they are able to drive the demands of the whole organisation.

Technology leaders ensconced in an increasing range of knowledge management initiatives and innovation projects will find themselves required to operate more as transformational leaders than IT technicians.

Such a move suggests a new function for technology; part of a broader, operational system ­where IT’s vital purpose within the company is finally recognised. There is no need to panic, then. While the future may look bleak for traditional IT directors, transformational leaders will help direct business operations.

Unless you have turned straight to the opinion page, you will have noticed that much of this week’s Computing is dedicated to our annual awards evening. The extravagant bash, held last week at the Battersea Park Events Arena in London, celebrated the outstanding projects and professionals in UK IT.

As ever, the Computing Awards show that the industry has much to be proud of, from innovative public sector projects to leading-edge private sector implementations.

Such progress, therefore, makes it disheartening to hear Gartner’s suggestion that chief information officers (CIOs) should create a backup IT budget for 2008.

The analyst says technology leaders should produce a contingency budget in case of a business slowdown.

In a time of credit crunches and sub-prime mortgages crises, such advice might seem farsighted.

But is there any IT director that does not already work with a contingency?

Surely every technology leader recognises that deadlines can be missed, projects can run over budget and the economic climate can turn sour?

It would appear not, with Gartner suggesting CIOs should target a decrease in IT spending of at least 10 per cent before the finance director makes his or her own cuts.

Ten per cent is quite a large amount ­ is the economy already in such precarious shape?

While a bit of preparation is all well and good, talk of such cuts could produce a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The economy is not in recession, but if we keep talking about a downturn, we could make it happen.

So how about a bit of optimism? Instead of talk about cutting projects, prepare for innovation within your existing budget.

Make sure the leading-edge mobility, integration and green computing projects are prioritised, rather than resource refresh initiatives.

A recent survey by the European Commission found that Europe’s research and development spending has been declining since 2000, standing at just 1.9 per cent of GDP ­and almost half the rate devoted to research investment in China.

Do not let your IT department become part of the downward trend. And if your company’s finance director wants to cut your budget, fight for the innovative projects with all your might.

The winners of the Computing Awards show that technology leaders have a duty to strive for excellence, not just mediocrity.

IBM's agreement to buy Cognos for about $5bn creates more consolidation in the business intelligence market. The deal, which is expected to go through in early 2008, comes in the wake of SAP's offer for Business Objects in October and Oracle's purchase of Hyperion earlier this year.

In a press release, IBM said the acquisition supports its information on demand strategy, an attempt to enable business knowledge to be delivered to a broader set of people across the organisation.

IT directors struggling with the challenges of application integration, and providing knowledge on-demand to key business users, will hope such initiatives bear fruit.

As has been identified in Computing's recent Definitive Guide series, the integration challenge remains huge and will dominate organisations’ investment for the next five to 10 years.

And with a smaller amount of business intelligence vendors to help sort data challenges, IT directors will have to be on their toes as they help secure the best software deal for the company.

Gartner's suggestion that chief information officers (CIOs) should create a back-up IT budget for 2008 is both obvious and depressing. The analyst says technology leaders should produce a contingency budget in case of a business slowdown.

But is there any IT director that does not already work with a contingency? Surely every technology leader recognises that deadlines can be missed, projects can run over budget and the economic climate can turn sour? To be fair, Gartner tightens its recommendations by stating that CIOs should prepare now before they are asked to reduce costs. The analyst says technology leaders should target a decrease in IT spending of at least 10 per cent.

But such cuts could produce a self-fulfilling prophecy. While the economy is not in recession yet, keep talking about a downturn and we can all watch the slump become manifest...

Siloed data, an ever-increasing compliance burden and poor integration - the information management problems are mounting up for technology leaders, says analyst Gartner. However, many companies still do not have formal information governance programmes, or coordinated management strategies. Gartner reports that:

• Organisations that do not approach information management in a coordinated, enterprise manner, will fail in the first or second year at a rate of more than 90 per cent
• A lack of information governance affects the bottom line - companies in North America have lost more than $600bn in revenue due to poor quality data
• But one UK telecoms provider instilled data-quality awareness by reducing revenue loss - due to inaccurate billing - from more than 15 per cent to less than 1 per cent
• Growing demand for consistent information management across the organisation will lead enterprise information management (EIM) to mature as a discipline in 60 per cent of blue-chip firms by 2009

Gartner defines EIM as an integrated discipline for structuring, describing and governing structured - and unstructured - information assets.

There is much to do be done, then - and many strategic transformations need to be undertaken. Computing recently exposed the challenges at-hand through a four-part special report, the Definitive Guide to Information Management.

During the report, Eden Project head of IT Jon Curry illustrated how his organisation is preparing for the challenge ahead, implementing crucial systems and employing key people.

“The technology is about making it easy and effective to capture people’s details and keep them in a secure environment, while on the content side we must focus on providing information that makes people engage with us,” he said.

“Our information management needs will grow over the next couple of years and we need a combination of new technology and a willingness from the business to adopt the technology.”

Organisations now have a range of business and IT processes to call upon as they attempt to create seamless supply chain integration.

Rather than holding stock in expensive warehouse space, firms are looking to make the most of innovative technology to speed up logistics processes, source products direct from suppliers and push final goods quickly to customers.

Successful supply chain management is all about overseeing multiples: multiple shopping channels; multiple technologies, including radio frequency identification (RFID); and multiple sourcing locations, such as the Far East.

Maintaining consistency across multiple channels, technologies and locations is a considerable task.

Take retailer Argos, who has seen its product line increase from 7,700 to more than 18,000 during the past seven years.

As highlighted in this month’s Computing Business cover story, Argos’ supply chain director Steve Melton says providing the goods for a broad range of lines requires a firm hand.

“We have been working with key suppliers, particularly those in the Far East, to reduce order quantities and reduce lead times,” he says.

RFID technology can help IT leaders track and trace deliveries when errors occur, but it remains a pipe dream for most.

Too expensive to tag all but the big-ticket objects, RFID remains associated with the bulk movement of goods, rather than individual items.

With more external sourcing now taking place, anything that can improve item tracing might be sensible.

The EU-wide number of dangerous products reported on a week-by-week basis this year is up 43 per cent, with 48 per cent of them involving Chinese products.

However, strong supply chain management is not just about controlling external suppliers. You will also need to take charge of internal systems and ensure that staff are not scared by innovative IT.

Supply chain processes traditionally over-rely on acquired knowledge, a process that can leave a firm exposed when key individuals leave an organisation.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is allowing organisations to re-use resources on-demand in a modularised fashion.

Some firms are already taking a lead here, illustrating how enterprise resource planning and electronic point of sales systems can form part of a holistic logistics system.

The innovative use of IT should mean the days when the supply chain was the most intractable leg of the product delivery journey are increasingly distant memories.

Good news - possibly. Analyst Gartner has unveiled what it believes will be the top 10 strategic technologies for 2008. It's good news, I guess, in that chief information officers should have a heads-up about the technologies that - to quote the analyst - will have a "significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years".

Which is always helpful, especially if you're planning on spending a big wedge of the finance chief's cash. Gartner suggests proactively planning in the following areas:

1. Green IT: Which is common sense, really - both from a strategic and public relations perspective.
2. Unified communications: Gartner suggests 80 per cent of companies are already involved in trials and refers to unified communications as the first major change in voice communications since the digital PBX.
3. Business process modelling: Service-oriented architecture is tough - BPM helps executives make the most of software resources.
4. Metadata management: Firms keep creating and pumping out increasing amounts of content. Metadata management helps chief information officers make the most of their information, creating consistency and integrity.
5. Virtualisation 2.0: Just when you getting used to the concept of storage emulation, along comes virtualisation 2.0 - stronger, fitter and altogether sleeker. Includes a whole lot more resiliency and real-time automation.
6. Mash up and composite apps: Gartner says mash up technologies will evolve significantly during the next five years - get wise and formulating an enterprise strategy.
7. Web platform and web-oriented architecture: Basically, the web is going to become the standard service delivery model. Prepare for that development, too.
8. Computing fabric: The future of servers - a move beyond blades to create a larger, single system that is the sum of its components.
9. Real world web: Informal term, referring to places where information from the web is applied to the particular location, activity or context in the real world. It is intended to augment the reality that a user faces, not to replace it as in virtual worlds. Gartner says businesses now need to seek out new applications and revenue streams from the web in a real-world situation.
10. Social software: Web 2.0 will experience considerable flux, with continued product innovation and new start-ups. Expect significant consolidation.

Gaining value from outsourcing contracts is one of the most intractable challenges for users. Organisations regularly farm out problematic areas of the technology department, with little awareness of where value is being delivered.

Which is why The Corporate IT Forum is launching a new benchmarking service to give technology leaders a more accurate understanding of supplier contracts.

Designed, developed and financed by the corporate organisations that make up The Forum, Continuous Performance Improvement for Outsourced IT Services (CPI OS) allows users to contrast the cost and service levels of contracts against other large businesses.

The full service will be officially launched to corporate IT executives on 1st November at an event featuring presentations by IT leaders from BAA, British Energy, Friends Provident and Hampshire County Council.

John Parker, director of improvement services for The Corporate IT Forum, says: "We expect CPI OS to revolutionise the procurement process, increase competition and mark a step change in the relationships between corporate IT users and suppliers."

Big aims, certainly - but you can expect the service to be a success. After all, The Corporate IT Forum has a long history of delivering similar platforms. CPI Benchmarking was established in 2001 by a group of Corporate IT Forum members that were unsatisfied with existing forms of benchmarking.

The current CPI service allows users to benchmark across a range of areas, such as desktops, infrastructure and staff costs, and has been significantly expanded to include network services, including LANs, WANs and e-commerce.

More information on CPI OS benchmarking service - Continuous Process Improvement

Compliance remains a huge concern for technology leaders, with organisations forced to conform with an ever-increasing range of standards and regulations. Finance IT directors face the largest burden, including the forthcoming Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) - which comes into effect in January.

SEPA will create a single zone for the Euro, in which all electronic payments are considered domestic and differences between national and international payments will not exist. But becoming compliant for the SEPA deadline will require a significant investment in technology - and is creating a significant range of challenges for financial organisations, according to research from transaction specialist VocaLink.

A survey of European and global banks reveals more than half of respondents believe the January 2008 deadline is unachievable. Worse still, 81 per cent of banks believe their customers will not migrate payments to SEPA schemes until 2010 or beyond.

So, what's the issue? When it comes to compliance, is SEPA a step too far?

Financial organisations are struggling with SEPA - VocaLink research

What type of technology leader are you? Maybe the decisions you make are crucial to the business, or maybe your firm has already decided the CIO role is becoming redundant?

Computing Business (and this blog) has written about the possible end of the chief information officer (CIO), as more businesses decide to phase out the IT director role following major infrastructure overhauls (see end of post for link). Some experts suggest firms could stick with existing systems and place more responsibility on the chief financial officer.

But it's important to place such changes in the context of a wider business transformation. Change in the role of technology leader is all part of a bigger picture that involves broader economic conditions, specific company targets and new leadership regimes.

Mark Raskino, research vice president and fellow at analyst Gartner, pointed out to me recently that these are good economic times - and business leaders are targeting growth, not just survival.

To do that, Raskino says leaders are working hard on strategic focus, partly because if they don't, private equity teams are hovering and poised to put other managers in place to do it for them.

So, what is technolgy's role in securing a growth-focused strategy - and how important is a strong IT leader?

For some companies, like Tesco, British Airways and Norwich Union, Raskino says IT is critical to the improvements they want to make in product, service, process efficiency or even the business model itself: "In those cases the CIO role is very important," he says.

For others firms, however, IT is eclipsed by other imperatives, notably culture change or financial re-engineering. And leaving the systems alone for a while, or outsourcing them, makes sense.

In the future, Raskino says we'll see more variation of IT leadership and governance structures between companies - rather than a single template. "And that's a good thing, it shows IT's role in business is maturing and better understood," he says.

Computing Business analysis on the end of the CIO - Ask the experts

Twenty-odd years of mobility - and still the pressures for chief information officers (CIOs) mount.

The BBC reports how on the 7 September 1987, 15 phone firms signed an agreement to build mobile networks based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications (see end of post for link).

Progress has been swift - according to the GSM Association there are more than 2.5 billion accounts that use this mobile phone technology. But while the mobile phone might seems ubiquitous, challenges for business remain - as identified by this week's special feature on mobility in Computing (see end of post for link).

The feature - which is the first of four reports on the future of mobility in the enterprise - identifies how integrating mobile devices and making them work with company applications is still a big barrier to wide scale adoption and use.

Despite massive usage of mobile devices, transformations heralded by the use of such technologies has only just begun.

The report suggest users will face a range of challenges during the next three-or-years and Lief-Olof Wallin, research vice president at analyst Gartner, says CIOs should concentrate on five areas:

Don’t treat everybody the same
Most companies will be able to segment the user base into at least three profiles based on business requirements, job function, work style and locations.

Make IT responsible for mobility
Such an initiative will ensure that the organisation benefits from the same predictability of costs and project delivery times, while achieving the agreed service levels for all its enterprise mobility projects.

Create a mobile centre of excellence
Have three or four key staff that pull in virtual members as required to look at issues such as compliance, security, procurement, contract negotiation and local policies for use.

Implement a single unified mobility policy
Rather than rely on separate policies that have grown up piecemeal for mobile phone and laptop use, firms need to create one end-to-end policy that addresses all the issues of mobility, including security and interconnection standards.

Balance people, process and technology
While policies and processes are required for success, overly focusing on such aspects will delay time-to-business benefits while large amounts of documentation is produced. Find the balance between good enough technology, skilled people and sufficient policy – and processes for a successful implementation.

BBC report on the history of the mobile phone - Mobile phone technology turns 20

Computing special report on mobility - Mobile momentum

Pity the chief information officer (CIO) that is under huge pressure to deliver value, but who has little enough time to deliver the required results.

Research from EDS and research specialist Populus shows CIOs stay in position for just over three years (38 months) – hardly enough time to impress the chief executive with leading edge business technology projects.

With 80 per cent of initiatives running over time, the research recommends technology leaders commission IT projects within 100 days of being appointed.

Three months-or-so is just about enough time to get used to the vagaries of internal politics and legacy IT, let alone start transformational projects.

No wonder CIOs feel fed up and often feel second rate to finance directors, many of whom continue to control the technology purse springs.

Ollie Ross, director of research at The Corporate IT Forum, told me that many organisations already choose to have technology sitting under the auspices of the financial director – whether they have a CIO or not

'There are points at which the business needs very strong IT leadership and there are other points when this is less critical and it makes sense for IT to fit under the finance department,' he said.

Basically, no-one wants to study technology. But the brave souls that do follow IT into higher education often find technology usage at UK universities is decentralised and disjointed.

Recent GCSE results point to a continuing technology skills crisis, with IT student numbers down almost 10 per cent since last year.

And the number of students taking technology A-level subjects has also dropped again - in 2007 5,610 took A-level computing, compared with 6,233 last year.

Experts suggest universities and employers must work together to ensure the needs of the technology market are met.

But ironically, academic institutions' own IT often remains disparate and disjointed, according to one senior technology expert.

Fahri Zihni, director of ICT at Aston University, told me recently that some universities don't even know how many IT staff they have - such problems are a legacy of institutions being splintered into autonomous units, often with specialised technology staff attached.

UK universities are attempting to get their own houses in order, with Fahri suggesting the centralisation of IT is a key priority for academic institutions: 'They want to measure satisfaction and results.'

But some institutions are making more progress than others, he says, and many universities are still lagging way behind.

Harrods' IT director David Llamas has transformed the luxury retailer's systems during the last four years (Computing, 26 July). The affable technology leader has ripped out legacy applications, replacing old infrastructure with a service-based architecture.

Chatting at London's exclusive Mosimann’s Club, Llamas highlighted how a period of consolidation and standardisation means he is now ready for a sustained phase of innovation.

Llamas doesn't just have a keen eye for business technology and improved efficiency, however. While we were talking, the eagle-eyed IT director spotted film star Hugh Grant walking past the club.

But despite our excitement, neither of us 'papped' the Four Weddings and a Funeral actor. Which was odder than your might expect, given the context of the hysteria surrounding soul singer Amy Winehouse walking past Computing Towers the other day.

People were pushing and shoving each other to take photos of the celebrity pages mainstay and her husband Blake-Fielder-Civil, probably knowing that they can quickly upload the pictures and sell them for a quick buck...

Computing features editor Chris Slinn recently received an envelope of informative literature about litter bins, bollards and gritters.

This was strange, seeing as I, and not the mysterious Chris Slinn, am features editor of Computing.

While company expenses might stretch to a taxi fare or a meal with a contact, it’s unlikely they’ll stretch to buying me my own grit spreader.

The double mix-up – the wrong person being sent irrelevant information – suggests that someone, somewhere had a lax moment with a couple of databases.

Such negligence is a widespread and unacceptable side-effect of the knowledge economy, where businesses have to deal with an ever-increasing range of customer records.

At the launch of his annual report last week, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas called on all UK chief executives to take the safekeeping of personal information more seriously.

Thomas referred to the inexcusable security lapses of the past 12 months that have seen laptops holding personal details stolen and credit card statements found in waste bags.

The annual report highlights how the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has received almost 24,000 enquiries and complaints concerning personal information.

Such grievances are not hard to find. A mix-up between two banks meant that my friend recently received another woman’s personal banking information.

The bank offered £35 compensation, which is pretty measly when you consider they will sting you with a £30 bill for going just £10 overdrawn.

Which offence is worse – letting your account slip into the red, or giving personal banking details for free to a total stranger?

Perhaps part of the explanation for a lax attitude to personal information is the cheap availability of data.

Security specialist Symantec recently found there is a global underworld of criminal organisations selling stolen information.

UK-based credit cards are available from as little as £1.03, and full identities – US bank account, credit card, date of birth and government-issued identification number – can be bought for just £7.22.

With personal data devalued to such an extent, is it any wonder companies are playing fast and loose with customer information?

So what if a user downloads personal data to a USB stick, and leaves it on the seat of a bus in Birmingham? You should care. First, identity theft costs the UK economy more than £1.7bn per year, according to the UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas.

Second, the technology leader will be responsible for ensuring security systems do not allow costly information leaks to take place.

But such activities are difficult to prevent, especially with IT managers finding it hard to deal with the downward trend in security spending.

Analyst Forrester Research found European and US chief information officers spent 7.75 per cent of their IT budgets on security last year, compared with 8.92 per cent in 2005.

However, Forrester also found that a drop in spending is not an indication of security’s declining significance, with 63 per cent of technology leaders suggesting security upgrades are a business priority.

It will be your job to convince the board that spending more on information security is worthwhile.

Over a nice cuppa - I had latte, he had tea - CIO Connect managing director Nick Kirkland talked about the key issues facing contemporary technology leaders.

Not one to hog the limelight, Kirkland - a former IS director at publisher Penguin Books and Gartner vice president - prefers his association or its members to do the talking.

But a personal travel history circumnavigating the globe in aid of business technology and daily interaction with the UK's most important technology chiefs means Kirkland holds an authoritative knowledge of the IT industry.

One of his - and he says his members - key concerns remains business and IT alignment: 'We've talked about it forever, but it's still critical,' says Kirkland.

Computing writes about the full spectrum of business technology concerns - from project failures to improved efficiencies, from green computing to social networking.

Yet one issue that informs all these concerns is the need for a closer interaction between the technology department and the business, whether it's to do with IT spending, people management or project implementation.

It's just a shame that after years of writing about the need for integration between IT and business, alignment is still at the critical - rather than the taken-for-granted - stage. Who's fault is that - the IT department or the business?

You IT managers are a risk-averse bunch. Given the opportunity to stick your neck on the line with a risky project implementation, you will probably draw your head back off the block and go for a less hazardous and less interesting development.

Analyst Gartner recently found that while most technology leaders agree that innovation matters, few have taken the management actions necessary to ensure it happens.

Why the fear of change and originality? Why the fear of doing something different? One answer might be found in the commonly quoted adage that suggests no IT manager ever lost his or her job by selecting Microsoft.

Technology bosses are scared that choosing the less popular Linux operating system at the desktop level, for example, might incur the chief executive’s wrath in the event of a breakdown.

But there is also a chance UK IT is being hamstrung by technology leaders’ decisions not to go with out-of-the-ordinary systems and innovations.

Lisa Hammond, chief executive and founder of consultant Centrix, says good technology management is about trial and error. She says she knows one retail bank that undertakes 300 web-based innovations a year.

Each development has four weeks to impress the business. If it works, great. If it fails, the bank shuts it down.

Successful projects are put out to tender, with smaller, innovative organisations used to create fully-formed services.

The process helps the retail bank make the most of other pioneering organisations, allowing the over-burdened IT manager to concentrate on running the business.

It is an important priority setting process. Organisations still spend more than a third of their budgets on internal development and maintenance, according to researcher Datamonitor. But at the same time, the majority of IT budgets are expected to rise this year, and a high proportion are also expected to increase in 2008.

So shouldn’t you be taking a few more risks in the hope that some of your revolutionary technological developments pay off?

As a first step, create an innovation network to ensure everyone in the business knows what everyone else is doing and is aware of the products that are being shaped. Then develop a chief of innovation role that reports into the technology leadership position.

The only risk you might incur in this strategy is that you might generate a host of money-saving concepts – and that is a threat that you should have been preparing for a long time ago.

The butterfly on the cover of this month’s Computing Business is a strong visual metaphor for the diverse range of challenges facing the contemporary chief information officer (CIO).

After all, modern technology leadership is all about successful transformation. Whether it is business processes or technology implementation, CIOs are expected to lead change management projects that will benefit the business.

Like the metamorphosis of the butterfly, many IT projects will involve several stages of progression, such as re-engineering, restructuring and cultural change.

But unlike the butterfly – which passes from egg to caterpillar and pupa, before becoming a winged adult – the result of change management initiatives is often less than spectacular.

Despite the concept of managing change having been around for almost 80 years, up to 70 per cent of projects still fail.

So, what is going wrong? Why is transformation such a tricky task for the IT organisation and the business at large?

This month’s cover feature highlights a host of reasons: think of your problematic change management projects, pick and mix the relevant factors – and think about what you could improve next time.

First, transformation is about looking after your people, not looking after your technology. Building trust among your team requires honesty – and that means ensuring everyone in the team is cared for, from developers to board members.

The key to successful change management, meanwhile, is preparation. Do not concentrate on quick wins at the expense of getting the processes right.

Finally, take your eyes off the butterfly and take a long, hard look at yourself. Are you really cut out to be a change manager?

The role of the CIO is rapidly evolving and analyst Gartner says future technology leaders will have to become proficient business people, with some not wanting or having the ability to be successful.

It is time, then, for you to ensure that a host of change management techniques are in your best-practice armoury.

Successful change will inevitably come down to a case of transformation – both in the business and in the individual.

So, are you a caterpillar struggling to make your technology improve the business, or a beautiful butterfly providing efficiencies and value to the board?

Keep working on your change management methods and your metamorphosis will be complete.

Bonjour. Or, more suitably perhaps, zut alors! For it appears that a failure to understand foreign languages is costing European businesses time and money.

As much as eight out of ten companies have lost revenue due to translation errors. A further 40 per cent of firms claim errors have delayed product launches, and 7 per cent or businesses report they have received fines for non-compliance because they have failed to translate material accurately

The survey - produced by multilingual content specialist SDL International - unsurprisingly found half of firms do not have a global information manager, SDL's key piece of software, to ensure information flows across a company. But hey, errors are errors. And at The Knowledge, we are keen to help IT leaders work more efficiently.

As Chris Boorman, SDL's chief marketing officer, states: 'Every Brit abroad should know, it doesn’t matter how loud you shout – if you’re speaking the wrong language, you simply won’t be heard.'

So, make sure your workers are aware of the complexities of working across localised markets. Failure to do so, after all, could be a costly mistake.