Is the ultimate end-point of the senior IT person’s career a seat on the board? If so, many readers of Computing Business may end their working lives disappointed.

The basis for this gloomy prediction is a continuing lack of movement for IT professionals to the top of the corporate tree.

A recently published National Computing Centre (NCC) survey of 250 medium-to-large-sized organisations found that about four of five companies have someone on the board responsible for IT, compared with three out of five just five years ago. The bad news? Few of them are IT people.

More specifically, the number of chief information officers who only have responsibility for technology has fallen over the past five years, from 27 per cent to 21 per cent, while 58 per cent of board-level IT is represented by a ‘director of IT and other areas’.

Usually, the IT department reports not directly to the chief executive (CEO) but instead to the chief financial officer, or to other directors who have board-level responsibility for reshaping business processes.

The UK is not alone here. A recent IT Governance Institute global survey found while 95 per cent of companies believe the successful deployment of IT is vital to long-term business success, almost 50 per cent rarely or never discuss IT at board level.

The same survey claimed that 66 per cent of CEOs were unable to detail the IT governance structure within their companies. It may be that senior IT people do not care whether or not they make it to the famed top table, with many indeed possibly preferring a more back-seat role.

But if IT – which can represent significant capital and operational expenditure – is not adequately understood or championed at the top level of the organisation, is there not a danger it will be mishandled?

Such developments create a worrying trend, says Philip Carnelly, senior research adviser at the Hackett Group, an analyst that carries out extensive benchmarking of IT’s contribution to corporate performance.

‘Our research does suggest world-class IT organisations have IT on the board, or represented at senior management committee level,’ he says. ‘Of course, many more do report in at the chief financial officer level, which is not disastrous, but may present the problem of how you get the correct level of attention.’

Carnelly says there are a couple of factors at work here. ‘IT people, like it or not, are still seen as too geeky,’ he warns. ‘It’s been said many times before, but it’s the ability to speak about IT issues as business issues in language the rest of the organisation can understand – the financial returns aspect – that will demonstrate how IT is giving value, and this can ultimately justify higher investment in technology.’

The ultimate advantage of such a process can only benefit the company itself, says Carnelly. ‘It’s the organisations that try to run IT as an internal business, offering it as a service to the rest of the company, that use it most successfully,’ he says.

‘In the same way corporations strive to produce the most world-class financial or HR organisations, they should also be looking for the best IT service.’

What do chief information officers (CIOs) themselves think? Some feel that there is too much stress on hierarchy and that provided their contribution is recognised, there should not be too much concern over their hierarchical status.

For example, James Bacchus, head of operations at media and lifestyle group Ministry of Sound, says his organisation is small enough not to have too much of a formal reporting structure.

‘I mainly report to the managing director of our media business, but it’s just as likely I’ll be talking to the CEO or the financial director – it all really depends on where the particular project or function in question is closely related,’ he says.

But in larger organisations that may not be so straightforward. Philip Raddon is group IT director of East Yorkshire-based telecommunications company Kingston Communications, and says that if the CIO or IT director is not sitting at the top table, it is a challenge to see how they are able to influence the kind of change the organisation may require.

‘Of course, that also depends how important IT is to the organisation as a whole, how central it is, and that can vary from organisation to organisation,’ he says.

Raddon and others – see box – stress that irrespective of formal position with regards to the ultimate management structure of the company, it is vital the CIO integrates with that team – and is extremely visible about IT’s role and partnership attitude.

In his case, there is a regular – half-day, once a month – executive steering committee meeting of managing directors of all business units, chaired by the group’s CIO and with IT acting as the central secretariat. ‘This helps show the organisation how key IT is in the development of the business overall,’ says Raddon.

Neil Kellar, director of IT at lottery organisation Camelot Group, says the key is to ensure the technology leader is engaged – and is seen as being engaged. ‘Technology is only the enabler – it’s the ability to deliver that in terms the company understands commercially that is important,’ he says.

Raddon, meanwhile, says a successful CIO ensures they and their organisation are actively involved with the top executives across the organisation, continually seeking and acting on all that feedback.

‘That has to happen on a regular basis. IT must sit on the management boards of each business unit so as to tightly integrate IT and the business,’ he says. ‘You must also listen to what your customer has to say, good and bad, which is why I recommend customer satisfaction surveys.’

One way or another it is vital that IT is discussed at board level. But how can this be achieved? Whether through an effective communications strategy, or through direct ownership by an individual CIO.

And what if no one takes ownership of IT to management level? A recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit suggests 11 per cent of companies do not even attempt to measure IT business risk.

‘This should be a concern given that IT failure can lead to serious business problems, including loss of revenue and customers,’ says Denis McCauley, director of global technology research at the Unit. How many more IT failures will it take to change the picture, we wonder?