Gartner: CIOs must do more to add business value
With no increase in IT budgets for 2012, CIOs will have to balance multiple priorities, according to analyst Gartner.
With no increase in IT budgets for 2012, CIOs will have to balance multiple priorities, according to analyst Gartner.
In a study of 2,300 CIOs for the Gartner Executive Program, the analyst predicted CIO IT budgets will remain flat, increasing just 0.5%, with declining IT budgets in North America and Europe.
Mark McDonald, group vice-president for Gartner Executive Programs and Gartner fellow, said: "CIOs concentrating on IT as a force of operational automation, integration and control are losing ground to executives who see technology as a business amplifier and source of innovation.”
According to McDonald, while the present economic conditions may tempt CIOs to force IT back into cost-cutting mode, senior executives expect technology to address the tough challenges by amplifying enterprise strategies and operations.
Meeting business expectations for increased growth, reduced cost or a transformed customer experience normally involves a significant increase in IT resources.
Top 10 CIO Business and Technology Priorities in 2012
| Top 10 Business Priorities |
Ranking |
Top 10 Technology Priorities |
Ranking |
| Increasing enterprise growth |
1 |
Analytics and business intelligence |
1 |
| Attracting and retaining new customers |
2 |
Mobile technologies |
2 |
| Reducing enterprise costs |
3 |
Cloud computing (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS) |
3 |
| Creating new products and services (innovation) |
4 |
Collaboration technologies (workflow) |
4 |
| Delivering operational results |
5 |
Legacy modernisation |
5 |
| Improving efficiency |
6 |
IT management |
6 |
| Improving profitability (margins) |
7 |
CRM |
7 |
| Attracting and retaining the workforce |
8 |
ERP applications |
8 |
| Improving marketing and sales effectiveness |
9 |
Security |
9 |
| Expanding into new markets and geographies |
10 |
Virtualisation |
10 |
Source: Gartner Executive Programs (January 2012)
Analytics and business intelligence was the top-ranked technology for 2012. Gartner reported that 61% of organisations responding to the survey say they will be improving their mobile capability over the next three years. Most have a mobility strategy that calls for becoming a market leader in their industry — so there will be significant competition as each seeks to fight to the top of its industry.
"Mobility, social media, information and analytics can be used to re-imagine the customer experience, as well as sales and service channels. These technologies do more than automate or administer processes; they are the processes and the sources of value," McDonald said.
