Intelligent Enterprise

Better Insight for Business Decisions

RSS
Webcasts
Digital Library
Subscribe
Home

Web Exclusive

August 8, 2002

Priority Shift

CIO surveys detect changing roles and strategies within Global 2000 IT shops

by Claudia Willen

Financial pressure caused by the ongoing global economic decline has brought about a shift in business and technology strategies among CIOs worldwide, according to recent surveys by analyst firms. The challenges CIOs face, and their priorities, are changing drastically in many regions as corporate IT shops grapple with reduced budgets and growing expectations to improve performance and provide more services.

In "Top Global CIO Issues for 2002," Meta Group analyst Jonathan Poe reports the results of an annual survey of more than 700 CIOs attending events such as the analyst firm's international series of CIO Boot Camps. According to Poe, close to 66 percent of surveyed CIOs say their top 2002 priorities are business/IT alignment and IT business value. These two priorities ranked at the top among CIOs in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Leadership is the third most pressing issue for CIOs globally, according to Meta Group's research.

"The globalization of IT, media reports, markets, customers, vendors, and peer networks drive CIOs to share many similar concerns. Reflecting the continual changes in customers, markets, and strategies, business/IT alignment remains the number one ... global CIO issue." Poe says in the report. "Economic pressures and business' habit to cut spending are driving IT value management (creating, capturing, and communicating the value of IT) to globally become the second top CIO issue. Finally, as ambiguity and technical complexity increase, CIOs are focusing on leadership."

Another report from Giga Information Group also documents CIOs' changing roles. According to Giga's ForSite Report, "The Chief Information Officer: The Universal Corporate Soldier," in the 1990s, most CIOs devoted 40 percent of their efforts to technology issues, 30 percent to business issues, and 30 percent to building an IT organization with good IT professionals.

In the 2000s, 55 percent of CIOs work on general business issues, such as finance, vision, change management, and customer service, and only 15 percent deal with technology issues, according to Giga. About 20 percent expend resources on IT organization issues such as recruiting, training, and assigning roles and responsibilities. Ten percent of CIOs focus on leadership and communication issues, such as marketing, strategic alliances, and innovation.

CIOs used to be focused on the back office, making technical decisions, and treating IT as a cost center, according to Giga. However, now CIOs have both strategic and tactical characteristics, try to operate IT profit centers with good customer service, have a better perspective on how technology applies in the front office, and know how to advertise IT's business value to other executives.

Business Relationship Management

In order to improve front-office alignment, CIOs have started emphasizing agility and business relationship management, according to Meta Group's Poe. Poe has identified a growing trend among CIOs to have business relationship managers (BRMs) on the premises of units served by IT organizations. By mid-2003, Poe says more than 50 percent of CIOs will use such managers as a best practice to improve communication. While only 15 percent of IT organizations (ITOs) currently use BRMs, this practice will spread to more than 85 percent of ITOs by 2005, Poe says.

Poe also foresees that "By 2008, continued application of dynamic business/IT alignment practices will result in standard, well-documented communication tools, processes, and models for increased ITO agility. Many of these tools, processes, and models will become reusable components within various centers of excellence."

As CIOs evolve, Meta anticipates that more than 60 percent of IT executives in the Global 2000(G2000) will refine IT value management through "IT portfolio measurement (including infrastructure, applications, processes, and human capital)" by 2004-5. Measuring IT portfolios will give CIOs the tools to "plan, monitor, adjust, and market strategic IT initiatives and business-relevant IT products and services," according to Poe. About 25 percent of G2000 enterprises will take this dynamic strategic planning even further in 2006-7 through "performance scorecards and workflow databases for comprehensive IT asset life-cycle management," Poe says.