Big companies are failing to put a value on their IT assets, which could be hindering them moving forward.

A report in Computing magazine indicates that nearly two thirds of executives do not know how much their IT assets are worth, meaning they are less likely to look for relevant IT support.

As well as this, less than half attempt to quantify their IT assets, and a third of chief information officers and chief financial officers do not know what they spend on software, a survey by Micro Focus revealed.

Also, more than half of the respondents thought that the real financial value of core software assets is ignored or poorly evaluated compared to other things like brand, property and intellectual property.

Micro Focus' chief executive, Stephen Kelly, commented: "If organisations do not know the cost and value of IT assets, then they must be severely challenged to make the right investment decisions moving forward."

Professor Soumitra Dutta of international business school INSEAD added: "Too little resource is dedicated to evaluating IT's contribution to business performance and this is an issue that must be addressed if the potential of technology is to be truly realised in corporations."

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent)