During the pandemic, the CIOs were the driving force behind the transformation and integration of new digital strategies. Now the organizations have settled into the new business models and have moved into a governance phase where IT leaders are actively making operational excellence their priority. IDG Communications’ report 2022 State of the CIO research highlights the shift in IT priorities and the increasing involvement of CIOs in ensuring cybersecurity and increasing operational efficiency. The report captures inputs from IT leaders and line of business (LOB) participants who confirm the shift in IT priorities. 84% of CIOs are currently focusing on functional activities like security management, improving IT operations, etc, compared to 81% in 2021.
CIOs expect another shift in their priorities in the next three years. 73% of the respondents plan to ramp up business strategizing activities like driving business innovation, developing business strategy, and identifying opportunities for competitive differentiation. However, transformational activities such as modernizing infrastructure and applications would remain an important part of the CIO’s mandate.
CIOs leading innovation
According to the report, CIOs are maintaining a prominent leadership profile and continue to have a pivotal role in defining and spearheading innovation. 74% of CIOs believe that their efforts during the pandemic heightened the visibility of the CIO role and will remain so. 78% of LOB also agree to the continuation of the elevated status of CIOs despite the shift in focus.
CIOs are considered innovation leaders even though the emphasis will be on governance and operational excellence. 86% of CIOs believe their role to be more digital and innovation-focused, while 85% believe they are more focused on leading digital transformation initiatives than their business counterparts.
Cybersecurity to attract maximum investments
49% of respondents cited increasing cybersecurity protections as their top business initiative that would drive investments this year. 45% of the respondents cite security and risk management as the top technology initiative demanding IT investment this year.
Other than security initiatives, 46% of the IT leaders are focussing on efforts to increase operational efficiency. Business process transformation which includes automation and integration, was another area of focus for 41% of respondents while 42% cited improving customer experience and 27% ranked employee productivity high on the CIO agenda.
Other than investments in security and risk management technologies, CIOs plan to focus on data/business analytics, modernizing applications, and legacy systems, customer experience, and cloud migration.
Over the next year, CIOs expect to involve more in
- cybersecurity (76%)
- data privacy/ compliance (71%)
- data analysis (58%)
- physical security (14%)
- multi-cloud management (11%)
- supply chain (10%)
- cloud migration (10%)
87% of CIOs in government, 82% in healthcare, and 80% in manufacturing showed more interest to increase their role in cybersecurity efforts over the next year.
CIOs as strategic advisors and partners
CIOs have become the go-to resource for navigating technology decisions as 58% of the business respondents see CIOs as the strategic advisors who can proactively identify business opportunities and make recommendations. 21% of LOB respondents view CIOs as consultants for providing advice and guidance on technology selection. However, only 4% considered CIOs as autonomous players, doing their job in technology procurement.
Revenue responsibility has also become a part of the CIO job description. In 2022, 65% of IT leaders said they focus on some form of revenue-generation initiative as part of their roles.
CIOs empowering the new work model
CIOs have a role in empowering remote and hybrid working models. 44% of responding CIOs have cited socioeconomic factors for escalating the efforts to enhance hybrid work using the latest technologies. Due to the more distributed nature of the workforce, there was a strong push for self-service IT, managed by the IT organization and 74% of respondents said implementing and supporting remote and hybrid work has taken a toll on the IT support staff and services.
Partnering with the LOB
Increasing operational efficiency remains the top priority for 34% of respondents although LOB is planning different business initiatives. Like CIOs, LOB respondents have cited security and risk management technologies to lead the technology investment in 2022.
As per the report, LOB respondents expect more IT involvement in data privacy and compliance (72%), employee experience (60%), and customer experience (58%) over the next year.
79% of LOB respondents find the role of CIOs as more digital and focused on innovation while 78% agree that CIOs play a major role in leading digital transformation.
Summary: CIOs have initiated new technology investments and delivered on promised business outcomes. As they begin to focus back on IT governance, it should be viewed as a shift that is part of the technology-driven business and CIOs continue to play a prominent role in leading business transformation.
Image and source credits: 2022 STATE OF THE CIO
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