The Essential Requirements of a Digital CIO
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The Essential Requirements of a Digital CIO
CIOs are becoming more central to overall business strategy, and a full arsenal of soft and hard skills are needed to meet the challenge. -
Raised Bar
73% of IT decision-makers said the expectations of the CIO among board members has increased in the last two years, up from 68% who felt this way in 2014. -
Creative License
70% said their board recognizes the need for a creative CIO, up from 64% who said this in 2014. -
Essential Qualities, Part I
48% said a digital CIO must be flexible while working with new business models, and 47% said a digital CIO must be open to trying new ideas/solutions. -
Essential Qualities, Part II
44% said digital CIOs must be able to take on feedback and constructive criticism, and 42% said digital CIOs need to be able to look at situations from different perspectives. -
Steady Progress
61% said CIOs still spend more time maintaining current IT systems than searching for new solutions, but that's down from 74% who felt this way in 2014. -
Massive Migration
46% said more than half of their organization's apps and infrastructure is in the cloud, and nearly one-fifth said all of their company's apps/infrastructure are in the cloud. -
Top Cloud Adoption Challenges
Security concerns: 49%, Existence of legacy systems: 43%, Lack of time: 40%, Lack of budget: 37% -
Virtually Safe
33% of IT decision-makers believe a move to the cloud can actually help boost security. -
Most Disruptive Tech Trends
Cloud: 58%, Mobility/collaboration: 54%, Data: 52%, Digitalization: 48%, Software-defined apps/infrastructure: 44%, Internet of Things: 43% -
Most Positive Changes within the CIO Role
Greater influence on the board and/or business and strategic decisions: 51%, More opportunity to add value to business: 47%, Increased capability for innovation/creativity: 45% -
Biggest Challenges for Digital CIOs
Time required to deal with corporate issues: 43%, Increased difficulties in getting multiple parties to buy into new tech adoption: 36%, Less time to develop creative/innovative solutions for business: 36%
What's the difference between "yesterday's CIO" and the modern-day digital one? Digital CIOs maintain a higher profile in the corporate board room, where board members have raised their expectations of IT performance and the delivery of new, business-benefiting innovation, according to a recent survey from BT. The resulting "The BT CIO Report 2016: The Digital CIO" also indicates that, given these challenges, board members increasingly recognize that today's CIOs must be more creative than in the past. Indeed, in assessing the "must have" qualities of digital CIOs, survey respondents were most likely to cite the need to work in a flexible manner with new business models and remaining open to new ideas/solutions, along with "soft skills" such as effectively responding to feedback and looking at situations from different perspectives. However, even with these shifting needs, CIOs still spend more time maintaining IT systems rather than looking for new solutions, but that balance appears to be reversing. "Digital transformation is under discussion at the board level, in IT and operational teams, in every organization and in every industry," according to the report. "That's exactly how it should be (because) the scope of what is digitally possible is uncertain. Every enterprise is working out their unique approach of adapting in this digital era and already using technology in new and creative ways to transform their business … CIOs are becoming ever more central to the boardroom and overall business strategy. The creative use of technology is absolutely accepted as a differentiator, not just in transforming costs or efficiency, but in improving customer experience and enabling disruptive growth." A total of 1,030 global senior IT decision-makers took part in the research, which was conducted by Vanson Bourne.
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