Chief executives looking to hand in a strong set of financial results next quarter would be well advised to start being nice to their IT directors.

Two stories this week demonstrate just how central the IT function is to the overall success and profitability of firms today.

Departing BA chief executive Rod Eddington announced last week that the airline has become the world's most profitable, with pre-tax profits of £15m, up from just £5m five years ago.

The turnaround is largely due to the astonishing success of the company's technology transformation, spearheaded by its customer-enabled BA programme.

In his announcement, Eddington noted the impact of the company's various technology programmes, which have not only improved customer service and the airline's efficiency, but trimmed more than £100m from the bottom line.

Today, nearly 600,000 of the airline's passengers now check in using self-service kiosks, one in five across the globe uses BA.com to book and manage tickets, and 76 per cent receive their tickets electronically.

The change has been so great that the company's latest advertising campaign focuses not on the comfort of its seats or its competitive ticket pricing, but on the ease of use of its web site.

But just as IT can help deliver a resounding success, getting it wrong can put a serious damper on a company's results. A new profit warning from supermarket group Morrisons this week - its fourth in just a year - highlights what happens when things do not go so well.

The retailer's inability to quickly integrate two different sets of distribution, administration and IT systems from its £3.4bn acquisition of rival Safeway last year has contributed to its latest profit warning.

As a result, the firm's beleaguered chairman Sir Ken Morrison is facing a shareholder revolt over his poor handling of the purchase.

Perhaps he should have spent more time keeping his IT chief happy.