Do you know your 'IT debt'?

Kiwi IT decision makers are in the dark about how much it would cost to bring their applications up to date, according to a new survey.

 

Conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of application modernisation company Micro Focus, the global survey found that 67% of New Zealand mainframe users couldn't put a figure on updating their enterprise application portfolio, compared with a global average of 46%.

 

Of those kiwis who were able to quantify the cost, also known as their 'IT debt', the average figure was US$7.9 million, compared with US$10.9 million for all respondents.

 

Admittedly, only 15 of the survey's 590 respondents were New Zealanders, so it's a pretty limited sample size.

 

Even so, Bruce Craig, country manager for Australia and New Zealand at Micro Focus, says the evidence still suggests legacy applications are hindering IT departments, eating up budgets as well as precious processing power.

 

"CIOs realise that too much of their IT budget is being spent on legacy assets and associated licensing fees," Craig says.

 

"Mainframe applications that don't fulfil a purpose in the organisation eat up expensive processing power that could be better used to productive tasks that make a difference to the organisation's bottom line."