Leveraging IT-Based Competitive Advantage: UK Industry Perspective

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that the UK construction industry has invested in IT as an integral part of its core business. However, there is also ample evidence to indicate that this investment has repeatedly and systematically failed to deliver the anticipated benefits, and it is argued that the investments are still predominantly sporadic and inward looking. Whilst the industry appears to understand the strategic benefits that can be realised through IT, the precise mechanisms through which these can be leveraged to maximise the likelihood of their success is not yet fully understood. In this context therefore, organisations need to be in a state of 'readiness', in order to have the capability required to effectively absorb IT enabled innovation into its work practices. In this respect, a high-level survey was conducted to gauge and assess the overall awareness and understanding of the UK construction industry's leading Chief Executives and IT Directors on this issue - particularly, to envision a way forward. This survey covered three main areas of: strategic benefits of IT; critical elements that lead to the realisation of these benefits, and the drivers behind these investment decisions. Research results identify a clear paradigm shift in thinking, with respondents identifying that IT strategies are now being integrated into organisational business strategies but that IT investment was now being influenced by the 'state of readiness' of the organisation in order successfully leverage these investments.