The role and impact of information technology in Australian businesses

This paper reports the results of a study of the top 530 organisations in Australia which was conducted to determine whether organisations use IT as a strategic tool to meet competitive issues. Significantly this research addresses the following questions: How well organisations matched their IT investment plans with their strategic planning; How well IT strategies were formulated; How well IT systems were implemented and what were the critical success factors and impediments;. Whether organisations were truly getting value from their IT investment.
The findings have shown the causes of misused IT in some organisations, such as IT strategy not closely aligned with business strategy, no change of historical IT structure, lack of understanding of the potential of IT, lack of CEO and senior management support and awareness of IT's potential, impediments to IT development and implementation. Although, in many organisations the role of IT department has become proactive and strategic to gain competitive advantage through primary and support activities, it has still not unleashed IT's full potential.