CIOs More Focused on Business Than Ever - Page 1

A new global study of more than 2,500 CIOs, released by IBM on Thursday, support this conclusion.

“Clearly the role of the CIO is changing dramatically,” said Pat Toole, IBM’s CIO, in a statement. “On the one hand they are trying to standardize routine processes and simplify their existing IT infrastructure to reduce costs, hence their growing interest in technologies such as Cloud computing. On the other hand, given the central role that today’s CIO performs in driving new business models, whether it’s a Smart Grid system, an Intelligent Transport system, or a transparent food supply chain, it’s not surprising that the amount of time they are now spending on driving new kinds of growth for their companies is growing considerably.”

To do this CIOs are leveraging analytics to gain a competitive advantage and improve business decision-making. In fact, this is now the top priority for CIOs. More than four out of five (83%) survey respondents identified business intelligence and analytics—the ability to see patterns in vast amounts of data and extract actionable insights—as the way they will enhance their organizations’ competitiveness.

These results and other insights are detailed in the just-released Global CIO Study 2009, which is the largest face-to-face survey of CIOs ever conducted. The study, titled The New Voice of the CIO,  represents the insights and vision of CIOs from 78 countries, 19 industries, and organizations of every size. The study reinforces the increasingly strategic role that CIOs are playing as visionary leaders and as drivers of innovation and financial growth.

Along with the increased focus on data analytics, the survey also revealed that data reliability and security have emerged as increasingly urgent concerns, with 71% of CIOs planning to make additional investments in risk management and compliance.

Other key findings of the survey include:

• CIOs also are continuing on the path to dramatically lower energy costs, with 76% undergoing or planning virtualization projects.
• Seventy six (76%) of CIOs anticipate building a strongly centralized infrastructure in the next five years.
• More than half of CIOs are expecting to implement completely standardized, low-cost business processes. Even as they build these standardized low-cost infrastructures, CIOs are able to focus 55% of their time on activities that drive innovation and growth, whereas traditional IT tasks like infrastructure and operations management now consume only 45% of their time.

“There really is a ground swell on how their role is evolving,” said Linda Ban, director of 2009 CIO study program. “It’s no longer enough for them to be considered the consummate IT professional in the company. They’ve got to understand the company, they’ve got to understand where the company is moving and what the issues are and how they help make that happen.”