An article by Paul Taylor in the FT recently claims that companies have spent too much on propping up and maintaining existing systems for ever-decreasing productivity gains. He argues, with the support of a recent PwC report, that the next cycle of IT value creation will lay in the function’s ability to support business process innovation.

“IT innovation is the chief casualty of this preoccupation with system maintenance. In 2007, only 13 per cent of the average IT budget supported innovation in business processes or products. The remaining 87 per cent disappeared into the black hole of general maintenance and upkeep.”

“The PwC report suggests that the ability of chief information officers and IT managers to break these long established spending patterns and support business process innovation instead, will be the most important factor for improving IT value and productivity.”