Tech Budgets and Staffing Are in Transition
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Five-Year Plan
The average CIO in the survey has been in his or her current position for 4.6 years, which is about the same as it was in 2011. -
Chain of Command
40% of CIOs report to the company COO, and 27% report to the CEO. Another 22% report to the CFO. -
How CIOs Spend Their Time
Interacting with non-IT, C-level execs: 13.3%, Overseeing IT priorities/strategies: 12.7%, Interacting with internal IT staffers: 11.9%, Working on business priorities/strategies: 10.9%, Managing IT operations: 10.7% -
Smaller Share
5.5% of global organizations' total revenues are allocated to the IT budget, down from 8.1% in 2011. -
Net Gain
45% of CIOs and other tech execs anticipate that the IT budget will increase in 2015, compared with 25% who expect a decrease. -
Net Loss
35% of respondents said they now have fewer internal, full-time IT employees than they did in 2013, and 26% said they have more. -
Outward Bound
8.5% of the 2014 IT budget was for the offshore outsourcing of personnel and hardware/software/facilities, up from 3% in 2011. -
Inside-Out
56% of the respondents' cloud investments will go toward internal cloud projects, and 44% will fund external cloud initiatives. -
Growing Exodus
The IT staff turnover rate is 6.17%, up from 5.52% in 2011. -
School's Out
3.23% of the respondents' total IT budget is set aside for education and training, down from 7.92% in 2011.
While overall IT budgets are going up, they account for noticeably less of organizations' total revenues compared with three years ago, according to a recent survey from the Global Institute for IT Management. In addition, findings reveal that CIOs have fewer internal, full-time IT employees than they did last year. The increasing outsourcing of IT personnel and hardware, software and facilities is helping to drive these trends. As reported here previously, there's also an increase in business units, such as sales and marketing, taking control of their own technology acquisitions and spending. In addition to the staffing and budget results, the survey sheds light on the daily life of CIOs, most of whom now report directly to their COO or CEO, rather than to the CFO. They also spend the vast majority of their time interacting with other organizational leaders and pursuing strategic initiatives instead of simply "running IT." This sense of greater purpose may contribute to a general state of job stability in the CIO position. CIOs and other technology leaders representing more than 2,500 global organizations took part in the research.