Your IT team is probably under pressure to keep costs down and projects within budget confines, but there’s a corner you don’t necessarily want them to cut: Training.

That’s because new research shows that projects with little or no training included tend to fail or fail to meet critical objectives if training is left out of the program.

CIOs and IT managers are generally diligent about their project budgets and you’re likely making them justify every investment they make. Their projects are pricey and have to succeed by producing business benefits no matter how complex the deployment.

During challenging economic periods when pressure increases to produce more with
less, IT managers may see training programs as a place to cut costs.

But cutting training will backfire. IDC research shows an unquestionable ink between
training, team skill, and business value:
• Projects that met most or all of their business objectives provided each team member with 40% more training than projects that failed or only partly
succeeded.
• Projects that spent > 6% of project budget to training were more successful than projects that spent <3%.

Being penny wise and pound foolish in IT doesn’t usually pay off. If you’re planning to invest in new systems or software, make sure everyone involved gets the right training so what you’ve done will be used properly and efficiently.

Your thoughts?

Tags: benefits, IDC, research, training