The CIO’s Influence in the Business Is Growing

The CIO’s Influence in the Business Is Growing

IT leaders are becoming change instigators and business co-creators in their companies, and are in a good position to influence and support digital initiatives.

41% of CIOs and other tech leaders surveyed said their IT budget has increased by at least 5% in the last financial year, while 21% said it declined by at least 5%.

On average, CIOs and other technology leaders said they control 77% of the tech budget.

Cognitive technology: 64%, Internet of things: 61%, Robotic process automation: 43%

55% of the CIOs and other tech leaders consider themselves “trusted operators,” and 45% consider themselves “change instigators” or “business co-creators.”

56% of the respondents have held leadership roles outside of IT, with 42% of them holding these roles in a business or geographic unit.

68% said they’d rate their IT department’s business acumen as no less than “above average,” and 18% rate their tech staffers as leading class for business acumen.

Improve business processes: 70%, Reduce costs and increase efficiencies: 67%, Maintain IT systems: 66%, Manage cyber-security: 61%, Support business innovation: 57%

57% of survey respondents said they are keenly focused on customers, while 49% said they prioritize growth.

Technology vision: 71%, Ability to influence internal stakeholders: 64%, Strong communications skills: 57%, Ability to attract and retain talent: 48%, Ability to communicate the financial impact of IT: 45%

Survey respondents said 74% of their IT staff works full time, but this should decline to 71% within two years.

Analytics: 65%, Customer and digital experience: 52%, Program management: 44%, Cloud and distributed systems: 43%, Systems and enterprise architecture: 41%