Parity reveals
a significant lack of business skills among IT managers
Released
on: November 29, 2007, 3:10 am
Press
Release Author: Parity Group plc
Industry:
Education
Press
Release Summary: Research from Parity reveals a lack of business
skills among IT managers which can lead to project failure or services
that do not meet financial performance targets
Press
Release Body: Research from Parity training
has revealed startling disconnects between IT and the wider business
world which has asked them to raise the question ‘What
exactly is an IT Professional?’
Rick
Firth, Managing Director of Parity
Training said, “It has always been assumed
that IT Managers should possess relevant technical skills, but we
are now asking whether these are always necessary if other more
valuable business skills are compromised. We believe that senior
IT Professionals must be business people first and have the commercial
and management skills to manage teams of people, financial budgets
and projects."
The
Parity research
into what makes a winning project team and the future of ITIL
in the boardroom highlights important weaknesses in the necessary
skills required to run a business. Both sets of research demonstrate
commitment to functional skills i.e. ensuring projects meet business
objectives over time and budget, and delivering internal
customer satisfaction regardless of the financial impacts.
But,
said Firth, “The average hard nosed CFO is not going to
be impressed with achieving objectives at huge, out of budget costs,
or indeed have delivery of great internal customer service with
no regard to the financial implications."
Organisations
have habitually invested in developing technical skills but have
often failed to give additional ‘professional’ skills
the same priority. To help organisations do this Parity
are making huge changes to the way they sell their IT
training services. In addition to launching added value
services such as Learning Plus and Parity e-books
they intend to completely overhaul their learning portfolio to include
IT Governance, Management and Professional skills.
Firth
describes what this will mean for the IT Management Profession,
“We are going to focus on upgrading Management skills.
Our research during the year has consistently told us that we need
to address these skills shortages. This means we will be focusing
our delivery strategy at the IT business improvement level. It is
a significant change and learning delivery end solutions need to
change to meet this challenge. Parity intends to be at the forefront
of responding to this”.
Parity
Group are leaders in IT Service Management and
Programme
and Project Management training and consulting and
were one of the original founders of PRINCE (Projects in
Controlled Environments).
## Ends ##
Editorial notes:
About
Parity Group plc
Parity is a leading IT Business services organisation
delivering technical, recruitment and training solutions to the
UK and Irish markets.
They
focus on the key areas of project, programme and IT service management.
Parity's Training business educates client's own
staff in these skill areas; their Resources business recruits highly
skilled short term, interim and permanent staff; and their Solutions
business takes total delivery responsibility for IT projects and
programmes as well as the ongoing delivery of IT applications and
business processes.
Parity's
30 years' expertise in Project and Programme Management
minimises business risk associated with systems implementation,
integration or business change for clients. Listed on the London
Stock Exchange, Parity recorded a turnover of over £150m in
2006.
Parity
has deep industry knowledge and expertise in Finance, Utilities,
Telecoms and the Public Sector delivering people, skills and concepts
for IT projects and programmes throughout the UK. Parity
have provided these services to a range of notable clients, including
Hewlett Packard, IBM, Ministry of Defence, Royal Bank of Scotland,
Northern Ireland Electricity, Siemens and GlaxoSmithKline.
Web
Site: http://www.parity.net/
Contact
Details: Parity PR contact details:
Gina Cannon
Parity Group plc
Wimbledon Bridge House
1 Hartfield Road
Wimbledon
London
SW19 3RU
0845 873 6945
www.parity.net/
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