The British Computer Society (BCS) has revealed it is talking to CEOs and other board-level executives at some of the UK’s biggest companies in a drive to ensure wider understanding of the positive contribution IT makes to commercial competitiveness and the overall economy.

The initiative forms part of the BCS’s Professionalism in IT programme, which was launched last year and aims to promote IT staff as professionals who should be treated with the same regard as those in traditional professions, such as law and accountancy.

Adam Thilthorpe, manager of Professionalism in IT, said its aim is to ensure the BCS reached out beyond its existing members and promoted the idea of IT professionals to the C-level executives, who typically have a big impact on the success of technology projects, but often have a minimal understanding of IT.

Thilthorpe admitted the initiative was in the early stages and did not have a formal name, but added that the group was currently recruiting its first members and organising a series of events and meetings for the embryonic network.

“We don’t just want to preach to the converted [among our members],” he explained. “The aim of the professionalism programme is to open doors at all levels. We want to build a network of senior business people to share IT project best practices and get across the message that IT and business success go hand-in-hand.”

He added that the initiative would also urge board-level executives to pay greater attention to the work being done by their IT departments. “There is a sense that a successful project is a business project, but as soon as it fails it becomes a technology project,” he said. “We want influential figures, such as CEOs, to recognise the successful work being done by IT. The UK is the fifth-largest economy in the world and achieves that with few raw materials and little manufacturing – technology is now at the heart of business and is driving the economy.”

Carrie Hartnell, programme manager at IT vendor trade group Intellect, welcomed the BCS’s initiative, adding it would complement Intellect’s attempts to promote greater understanding of technology among board-level executives.

She said that the emergence of more tech-savvy C-level executives would help limit the high proportion of IT project failures currently afflicting the industry. “A lot of companies still procure IT without a clear idea of what they want to achieve and are then surprised when it doesn’t deliver it,” she explained. “Making sure CEOs and CFOs know what is possible will help tackle this problem.”

Separately, Thilthorpe also urged IT professionals to help promote their professional status by embracing qualifications, such as the BCS’s Chartered IT Professional (CITP) qualification, that assess broad business and technology skills. “The range of IT professions share methodologies and structures, so a broad, experience-based qualification such as the CITP has value and helps establish the sector’s professionalism,” he argued.