I was reminded again over the weekend of the £25Bn pounds that were spent on the NHS patient records system – to deliver NOTHING.
Something like 50 percent of IT projects fail.
Many people in business now use their own devices and public internet platforms to connect with each other and get work done.
And yet I still hear of IT departments throwing their weight around and saying no to everything with staggering hubris.
There are good folks in there trying to bring about change but the question I posed on my blog ten years ago is sadly still relevant…
“How much of the IT industry could be characterised as wide boys in cheap suits selling wish fulfilment to “out of their depth” execs?”
The Obvious? 
I think what your observation on the use of personal devices is true although not sure the overall summation of the state of IT is positioned in a way that would encourage a healthy dialogue to start meeting the challenge?
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I spent my last ten years at the BBC encouraging that dialogue Simon, and indeed have been more recently engaged to talk to CIO groups on this topic, but still see too many of my clients being sucked into the same old game.
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It takes two to tango. Could much of it not be explained by the fact that those in IT and those in the Boardrooms simply don’t understand each other. They may both speak English, but in my experience both sets of people live in very myopic world’s with too often too little interest in understanding where each other is coming from before one party "sells" an IT solution, or the other party makes a "purchase" decision…
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Up to a point Ian but the IT industry has a pervasive complacent arrogance that is counter productive.
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