Though the information technology department of today wears many different hats, a new survey suggests that professionals tend to associate IT with a specific type of business function.
According to a recent poll conducted by IT research and analysis service provider InformationWeek Reports, more than half – 54 percent – of non-IT respondents said that they believed their company's IT dividsion was mainly a support or maintenance organization. Meanwhile, just 39 percent if IT workers felt the same way.
Lorna Garey, content director of InformationWeek Reports, indicated that IT departments nowadays do a lot more than maintenance and handling company matters through human resources software.
"There was a time not too long ago when IT was primarily in fix-it mode, recovering lost data and upgrading systems," said Garey. "Today, the demands for IT have moved away from maintenance and support and into innovation. Our research shows many non-IT professionals are still clinging to the old perception of IT."
Where there's general agreement is the future importance of the IT team. Sixty percent of both non-IT and IT professionals indicated that this department will become more critical to their business' overall function by 2014.
