IBM report: The CIO Revolution is here

3 years ago 369

Since the pandemic, CIOs' stature has grown, and 52% are engaging with their CEOs much than immoderate different C-suite leader, according to a recently released IBM study.

A virtual endeavor exemplary is emerging that is based connected the velocity and standard of unreality technologies, notably, hybrid clouds, and the accelerated results generated by combining artificial intelligence and automation. This is starring to "radical agility" wrong organizations and taking halfway signifier to unlock caller worth streams is the CIO, a caller IBM report finds.

"The thought that the concern leads exertion strategy is present obsolete," said Laura Money, CIO astatine Sun Life Financial, successful the report. "Business strategy is developed successful concern with our exertion strategy—as we stock a communal extremity of putting clients archetypal and making it easier to bash concern with america digitally."

CIOs are driving translation and concern worth astatine an astonishing pace, the study said. "Back successful 2011, lone 1 successful 5 CIOs ranked themselves arsenic a captious enabler of business/organization vision,'' the study said. "Now, they're collaborating with colleagues to conscionable fast-changing demands and driving worth passim their enterprises and beyond."

SEE: EY: C-suite leaders study stronger civilization and higher productivity with hybrid approach (TechRepublic)

Tech adoption has been accelerating and becoming an inextricable portion of each enactment and concern relation during the pandemic. At the aforesaid time, the IT relation "has grown dramatically successful scope and complexity,'' the study said. The relation of exertion leaders has expanded not conscionable successful breadth, but progressively successful strategical influence."

The quality to accommodate to the chartless and alteration risks into opportunities volition beryllium indispensable, the study said.

The CIO's caller identity

The study quotes respective CIOs who likened their roles to that of a "chief operating serviceman of technology," aligning to concern goals and concern outcomes.

"IT is progressive successful each functional unit," said John Gibbs, CIO astatine International Airlines Group (parent institution to British Airways). "The relation of the CIO is becoming little of a tech person and much of a concern leader. It's however you use the exertion that makes a difference."

Because IT teams enactment crossed the organization, the study said CIOs person a unsocial accidental to stock champion practices crossed functions. "The CIO relation is becoming much horizontal," said Steve McCrystal astatine Unilever. "We effort to destruct silos and align to concern outcomes."

During a play of wide anxiousness and workplace disruption, exertion leaders person been cardinal to addressing their organizations' astir pressing needs. Citing examples from tackling proviso concatenation issues to helping guarantee concern continuity to enabling distant work, 77% of the CIOs successful the survey reported that their teams played a captious relation successful their organizations' effect to the pandemic.

Research from IBM's Institute for Business Value besides recovered that the pandemic has prompted 55% of organizations to permanently course-correct their strategies. This includes accelerating the gait of integer transformation, adjusting the attack to alteration absorption and shifting to much cloud-based concern activities.

"Curiously, lone 23% of CIOs successful our survey expect pandemic-related shifts to distant workplaces to go permanent,'' the study noted.

Leading the complaint for change

Respondent CIOs reported that 20% to 40% of organizational concern processes person been automated—from proviso concatenation to manufacturing, concern to procurement, and selling to R&D. This automation helps thrust intelligent workflows, which successful crook make a "golden thread" of value, enhancing connections wrong the endeavor and crossed its ecosystem, the study said.

The tech gyration continues to accelerate, chiefly done unreality implementations, which the study said correspond an expanding information of existent IT workloads.

SEE: Top keyboard shortcuts you request to cognize (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

"This reflects the swift and increasing embrace—and effectiveness—of cloud-native platforms, successful particular, their proficiency for connecting and activating information to heighten engagement and collaboration,'' the study said.

Significantly, erstwhile responsive CIOs were asked to bespeak connected their organizations' transformations, a dramatically accrued fig reported higher levels of maturity successful their hybrid unreality operations (a 700% summation successful CIOs reporting precocious capabilities since 2019), AI-enabled workflows (a 560% summation since 2019), cloud-native improvement (a 467% summation since 2019), and different cardinal technologies, the study said.

New presumption with CEOs; amended alignment with CTOs?

CIOs contiguous negociate a analyzable portfolio, spanning a divers acceptable of responsibilities and constituents. These see offering exertion services to a wide spectrum of users, making information insights readily available, transforming enactment environments done productivity platforms and extending workflows crossed concern functions.

Reflecting their progressively strategical role, 52% of the CIOs successful the IBV survey reported engaging with their CEOs much than immoderate different C-suite leader. "This positions CIOs astatine a captious intersection successful their organizations, with a nonstop transportation to the astir elder levels of enactment and a vantage presumption crossed concern functions," the study said.

At the aforesaid time, the CTO relation is gaining expanding prominence, giving CIOs "crucial allies wrong the exertion function." At a precocious level, the exertion relation has a communal acceptable of responsibilities that are typically distributed betwixt CIOs and CTOs.

SEE: Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: A side-by-side investigation w/checklist (TechRepublic Premium)

More than 70% of exertion leaders surveyed reported that CIOs ain back-office applications, including proviso chain, workforce engagement, end-user acquisition and workplace enablement. They besides often ain areas including concern continuity, sustainability and information governance and compliance, according to the report.

In contrast, a important bulk of CTOs absorption connected exertion strategy, operations and architecture.

While the survey recovered an accent connected CIO-CTO teamwork, IBV's probe besides revealed "that CIOs and CTOs are often moving independently, and sometimes astatine cross-purposes." Only 45% of CTOs indicated predominant enactment with their CIO counterparts. On the flip side, conscionable 41% of CIOs cited predominant enactment with CTO peers, the study said.

The IBM Institute for Business Value surveyed 5,000 C-suite exertion leaders, including some CIOs and CTOs. Respondents spanned 29 industries and 45 locations worldwide.

Executive Briefing Newsletter

Discover the secrets to IT enactment occurrence with these tips connected task management, budgets, and dealing with day-to-day challenges. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays