According to a survey of 500 IT professionals (conducted by cloud and data center solutions provider INAP), 57 percent feel they’re only contacted when something goes wrong, and 27 percent feel strongly that “senior management has clearly communicated a desire to see the IT team more aligned with the goals of individual business units.”

Survey respondents were asked what one thing they wish their CEO knew about their IT department or team, and the responses varied from outright frustration and pleas for more staff to sincere expressions of dedication and the need for greater cybersecurity awareness.

Broken out into broad categories, the top insights IT professionals wish their CEOs knew include:

The INAP survey results include a selection of responses from IT professionals on what they wish their CEOs would understand about IT, including: 

• "How much time, effort and work goes into 'just keeping the lights on.'"
• "Know that in this day and age, the business would fail without our IT department keeping up with the latest technology."
• "How the lack of funding and consequential shortage of personnel affects the existing staff." 
• "How much time is spent unnecessarily because of employee error and negligence." 
• "I wish the CEO knew exactly how many different areas that the IT department has had some involvement in. From sales to marketing to human resources to finance, there is almost nothing that happens in the company that the IT department did not have a hand in." 
• "How close we are at times to totally losing it."