Business expertise is crucial.(Information technology employees must understand the business they are supporting) (Industry Trend or Event)

Information technology employees must understand the business they're trying to support if their purchasing and implementation decisions are to match the company's strategic goals. Yet many young IT staff members join companies with nothing more than technical training.

"Unfortunately, many 22-year-olds have been trained to believe that technology is an end in itself," says R. Ryan Nelson, a professor at the Center for Management of Information Technology at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va.

The good news is that these days more IT managers are making an effort to understand the ins and outs of their organizations.

A case in point is John Walker, an IT …