More than half of U.K. medium-sized businesses believe IT fails to provide value for money.
Technology is not being used as a strategic tool by medium-sized companies but is merely providing ad hoc support, according to research by Partners in IT.
And a significant amount of businesses quizzed--28 percent--said they have no IT strategy at all, in the survey of 271 companies.
Another 29 percent said they work with an informal loose plan, while 34 percent admitted to just buying systems as they are needed.
Only 18 percent of respondents said they have a formal IT plan approved by the board and just 16 percent said they plan their tech investment for the next three to five years.
As a result of this lack of planning, 35 percent of all respondents said business growth is putting pressure on their existing IT systems.
Paul Cash, MD of Partners in IT, told ZDNet Asia's sister site Silicon.com: "Some of the results are quite surprising. They [companies] have a focus on technology rather than the longer term view.
"There's often a disconnect between using IT to get the job done as opposed to using it for advantage."
He also suggested the launch of Itil version 3 will prompt companies to make IT a more strategic part of their business but acknowledged many companies may not be particularly aware of it.
The lack of planning also impacts the quality of IT staff hired--with 66 percent of respondents saying they don't have the best staff they can afford and 63 percent saying staff are not proactive.
Research from the Economist Intelligence Unit and HP also finds European IT staff are more complacent than others when it comes to delivering projects on time as they feel their jobs are not in danger if they fail to do so.
In Europe, 51 percent of those surveyed said they aren't at risk of losing their job if they fail to deliver a project on time, compared to 33 percent in Asia and just 22 percent in the Americas.
Tim Ferguson of Silicon.com reported from London.
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