Nearly three-quarters of all UK companies think that 1992 will be an information technology non-event, and half believe that 1992 computer system planning is unnecessary. So claims the newly released Price Waterhouse survey, which is entitled Managing IT. This international survey, which is based on worldwide research masterminded by Kit Grindley, also indicates that while German companies share the avowed nonchalence of the British towards 1992, French companies are taking the effects of deregulation on computing much more seriously. Worldwide investment in information technology, however, is growing with a boom in software spending forecast for 1989. Indeed, Grindley expanded on this point, stating that companies would be investing in toolkits, and not in off-the-shelf applications packages, because they feel that these do not give them a competitive edge. Grindley went on to comment that packaged software companies should, therefore, be worried about the future. The study also states that new jobs will be created in telecommunications and applications development, but that fourth generation computer languages are, by de-skilling programming, reducing the number of operating staff that companies require. As regards management problems, UK executives are unique in citing the integration of computer plans within corporate strategy as one of their main worries; internationally, a more widespread worry is the meeting of information technology project deadlines. Generally speaking, the survey found a worldwide move towards users decentralising, although US companies are slowing down their decentralisation because they find that too many users are getting into difficulties. Managing IT also comes to the conclusion that companies feel expert systems to be all hype and not much use. For those requiring the exact figures behind all of these conclusions, free copies of the survey are available now from Price Waterhouse’s shiny new building that is the gateway to London Bridge City.
