More IT decision-makers are joining the boards of UK firms but traditional IT directors may actually be losing strategic influence, according to a new report by the National Computing Centre (NCC).

Nearly eight in 10 organisations now have formal IT representation in the boardroom compared with six in 10 just five years ago, according to the poll of 250 companies.

However, the seeming increase in IT’s influence on company policy disguises a murkier picture. The NCC found that the number of IT directors on the board fell from 27 percent to 21 percent in the period, though the growth in directors with IT among other responsibilities more than made up for that decline.

The Benchmark of IT Strategy 2006 report also says IT professionals are missing out on management opportunities because of a perceived lack of broad commercial understanding.

“A few years ago people were saying IT is under-represented at board level,” said Michael Dean, NCC group marketing manager. “Now IT is represented but it’s less likely to be pure-play IT directors. The IT decision-making role is changing and business understanding, being able to show an understanding of return on investment, and an ability to engage with the board as peers, is needed.”

Others said that IT management roles are at an inflection point. “You can look at these numbers in two ways,” said Simon La Fosse, who runs the CIO recruitment programme at Harvey Nash. “Either board members have taken responsibility for IT, which is bad news for CIOs, or CIOs have taken responsibility for another area such as logistics, which is great news for CIOs.”

Many watchers have criticised UK universities for being slow to offer courses that combine IT with business skills.