Standardised IT offers more value

Companies should ensure that their systems and processes follow industry standards if they want to improve returns on IT investments and make it easier to enable technological change, according to research published by the DTI and the British Standards Institution (BSI).

The Empirical Economics of Standards report assesses the relationship between productivity and agreed industry standards. Its statistical analysis suggests that standards contribute £2.5bn a year to the UK economy and generate 13 percent of the growth in labour productivity.

"This report shows standards have an impact," said a spokesman for the DTI. "They are often seen as arcane and dry, but they actually create innovation." He added that decisions to adopt standards ought to be handled at board level.

The study highlights IT as a sector where the use of agreed rules, guidelines and definitions delivers major benefits. Frank Post of the BSI said standards are particularly valuable for IT products as they enhance interoperability. In turn, this can cut firms' integration costs.

According to Bobby Cameron of analyst Forrester Research, standardised IT infrastructure could give firms a competitive advantage by reducing maintenance costs and helping IT departments respond more quickly to changing demands.

Keith Foggon of Sapphire Technologies, an IT security consultancy certified under the BS7799 security management standard, said agreed best practices can improve communication between a company and its partners and customers. "A degree of standardisation means that when two organisations talk about a project they use common terminology," he added.

The growing trend towards firms using multiple service providers to deliver single IT projects could be encouraged by the uptake of IT management standards. In this way, IT staff from different outsourcers or consulting firms could use a similar process framework around certain technologies, helping to reduce training costs and speed up deployment.

But the BSI's Post admitted that companies might face a trade-off - and some would have to decide whether it is better to keep their unique processes to retain a competitive edge or adopt standards to reach a wider audience.