[LINK] Devil in the Detail

[Howard Lowndes]

Jan Whitaker wrote:
> At 04:55 PM 5/04/2005, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>> An average IT shop in an Australian company of more than
>> 1000 staff spends more than 60 percent of its entire budget to simply
>> keep the lights on.
> 
> 
> Uh, yes? And your point?  Should they be spending 60% on development? 
> Why? If it works, maintenance seems to be the name of the game.

Basically it means that they are unproductive, and given the nature of 
the systems out there I am not surprised.  Most IT budgets are spent on 
cleaning up the messes from lusers who just won't learn not to click on 
attachments.  It you can eliminate that problems the budget can be used 
more effectively.

Frankly I think most corps have little or no idea what they should be 
budgetting for IT.  About 20 years ago it was 1.5-2% of GTO.  Has anyone 
got current optimal figures.


-- 
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://lannet.com.au>
-- 
When you just want a system that works, you choose Linux;
When you want a system that just works, you choose Microsoft.
-- 
Flatter government, not fatter government;
Get rid of the Australian states.