Nearly 50 per cent of private and public sector business do not have an IT representative on the board, a new survey has shown.

The study, conducted by Touchpaper, found that as a result IT managers at these firms felt they did not have a great deal of influence on business decisions, ITpro.co.uk reports.

It said that 42 per cent of chief information officers and IT directors were not involved in the decision making process surrounding organisational changes.

Speaking to the website Graham Ridgeway, chief executive officer of Touchpaper, said: "The IT department should be at the heart of any forward-thinking organisation, not consigned merely to maintaining existing systems."

However, he did add that there had been progress in various sectors, singling out local councils which no longer treated IT as a "niche topic".

A recent study by Freeform dynamics stated that a disorganised IT infrastructure could prove "burdensome" for both firms and the professionals working at them.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'.