The charity sector is “massively behind” the private sector in terms of having IT representation at board level, according to Andrew Brenson, head of IT at Save the Children.

Speaking at the Civil Society IT Conference last week, he said: “Tesco has just given the chief executive role to a bloke who was previously in charge of IT; that is the future.

“You show me any FTSE 100 company that doesn’t have an IT representative at board level. Apologies if it offends anyone in the room but the sector is massively behind; the fact that IT is controlled by accountants is mad.”

“Antithesis of best practice”

Brenson, who spent ten years at Channel Four before joining Save the Children five years ago, emphasised the importance of keeping an IT strategy and implementation simple.

Referring to Save the Children’s IT systems when he joined, he said: “It was the worst, it was the antithesis of best practice.

“Everything that could be wrong was wrong and I took two and a half years putting it right. In this sector you have to keep it simple, you should try not to deviate away from standards.”

He added: “We have no choice but to use Microsoft in this sector, because of the pricing structure and the complexities involved in open source.”

Second Life

Meanwhile, he warned charities to “beware bandwagons”. “There are a lot of fads that I’ve seen over time. Anyone remember Second Life?

“I think it’s still out there but it’s not as big as it used to be. Save the Children spent a lot of money on Second Life and I don’t think we made a lot of money out of it.”