U.S. Chamber of Commerce CIO Survey Reveals IT Outsourcing Trend

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new survey released by the United States Chamber of Commerce shows many chief information officers (CIOs) are looking to information technology (IT) consultants and the outsourcing of IT functions to more effectively recruit and manage qualified staff.

"The competition for qualified IT workers, combined with low unemployment rates, makes staffing one of the greatest challenges CIOs face, in terms of the time required to recruit, hire and train valuable workers, and in terms of the budget costs," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue.

The rapid growth of new technology forces many CIOs to spend more time on administration and management, aspects of their jobs that they view as less important. As a result, the CIOs surveyed spend less time contributing to the strategic planning of their organization. On average, personnel management represents 20 percent of their workload and recruiting takes up another five percent.

Personnel costs also burden the IT budget, accounting for one-third of total expenses. In smaller companies, staffing costs can be even larger, swallowing nearly half of the IT budget.

Another frustration CIOs find is that many companies do not measure the bottom-line value of IT. Return-on-investment is measured by only 38 percent of the companies surveyed, and only 50 percent of these companies tie return-on-investment to IT departmental goals.

Nearly two-thirds of CIOs surveyed use IT consultants or rely on outside help for functions such as network and system management, application programming, web development, telecommunications and videoconferencing because of time and budget constraints.

The survey was conducted in conjunction with PeopleSoft, Inc., a worldwide leader in enterprise software solutions. The Chamber sent the survey to members with more than 250 employees and to several Federal agencies. A wide range of companies participated in the survey, including General Motors, Lucent Technologies, Emerson Electric and Owens-Illinois.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

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