If organisations spent more on user training then IT project failure rates would fall.
That’s the view of Cambridge IT consultancy Knowledge Solutions boss Adrian Palmer Greaves, who claims the cost of IT project failures and over-runs is costing UK companies £5.7bn a year.
“The statistics on IT project failures in the UK really do make depressing reading and it’s no wonder that many organisations are suspicious of the perceived benefits of technology,” said Palmer Greaves.
“Training and certifying users to ensure they understand and therefore adopt new systems is often overlooked in the rush to get systems delivered on time.”
He recommends a mix of blended learning, comprehensive and comprehensible user documentation and refresher training to meet users’ information needs, plus testing of their skills and knowledge.
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The £5.7bn figure is based on research from various sources. Management consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated earlier this year that 75% of UK IT development projects fail. IT market research firm Forrester, in a January 2007 report, estimated that the total spend on IT application development in the UK in 2006 was £7.6bn.
Overall UK IT spend in 2006 was about £38bn according to Forrester.
