Information Technology (IT) systems have become so influential to businesses that they may be driving company strategy. A new survey of IT trends in Irish Industry found a significant number of 200 managers surveyed replied positively to the query "Should business strategy be determined by the IT systems currently available?"

The survey also found that 47 per cent of companies buy systems based on integrated packages compared with 18 per cent who opt for separate software packages. The part of any organisation most likely to receive investment was found to be the finance department, largely due to the euro and Y2K issues.