Recession no barrier to innovation

The jury is still out on whether the UK economy is now recovering from the worst recession since the 1930s or just experiencing a temporary reprieve. But it cannot be disputed that the economic slump has not diminished the innovative spirit that pervades the country’s IT departments, if judged by the extremely high standard of last week’s UK IT Industry Awards.

The long list of finalists for the joint British Computer Society and Computing Awards, let alone the medalists and winners, reveals a robust and healthy profession flourishing in spite of economic woes.

In fact, the recession appears to have sharpened the focus among private and public sector organisations on using IT to deliver true value.

Budgets and employee numbers may have shrunk, but creative ability has not.

While project failures and budget profligacy always make the headlines ­ and rightly so ­ it is always good to be able to show the other side of the coin as well. Whether driving out costs, improving customer satisfaction, inventing new ways of doing business or better serving the public, the Awards nominees prove that IT departments are positioning their organisations not just to survive but thrive in recession.

These are the organisations that will be best placed when downturn turns to upturn.

It would also be a good bet that these are the organisations where business and IT have a healthy, mutually supportive relationship; where IT leaders empathise with business objectives and business leaders appreciate IT’s ability to meet commercial goals.

Increasingly, firms under pressure are looking to IT, with its underlying fundamental efficiencies driven by Moore’s Law, to pull the profit-making rabbit out of the recessionary hat.

Perhaps the message about aligning IT and the business ­ echoed by consultants, journalists, trade bodies, industry leaders and assorted pundits ­ is finally being put into practice.

Or perhaps ­ like predicting the end of recession ­ it is too soon to say.