Auckland, New Zealand - 15 Sep 2009: Results from a global study of more than 2,500 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) released by IBM (NYSE:IBM) today, reveal that using virtualisation to gain a competitive advantage and improve efficiency is now the top priority for A/NZ CIOs. Of the 129 A/NZ CIO respondents, almost 98 percent cited virtualisation as the key tool to enhance their organisations competiveness, compared with 77 percent of all CIOs surveyed. This was closely followed by 94 percent of A/NZ CIOs who identified business intelligence and analytics as the next best way to enhance their organisations competitiveness compared with 83 percent globally.
With an increased focus on virtualisation and data analytics, the study also revealed that data reliability and security have emerged as increasingly urgent concerns, with 83 percent of A/NZ CIOs planning to make additional investments in risk management and compliance, compared with 72 percent globally. The survey also revealed that already 39 percent of A/NZ CIOs view cloud computing as strategic and plan to implement it, even in the technology’s relatively early stages.
Other key findings of the survey include:
- CIOs in A/NZ businesses enjoy more influence on business strategy when compared with the global results, 77 percent of A/NZ CIOs hold a seat on the senior management team, while only 54 percent have the privilege of this influence across the world
- Green IT is viewed as a key strategic focus for AN/Z CIOs (67 percent)
- 78 percent of A/NZ CIOs (76 percent globally) anticipate building a strongly centralised infrastructure in the next five years. Furthermore, 53 percent of A/NZ CIOs (56 per cent globally) are expecting to implement completely standardised, low-cost business processes
- Even as they build these standardised low cost infrastructures, CIOs are able to focus 55 percent of their time on activities that drive innovation and growth – 45 percent in A/NZ. The remaining 45 percent (55 percent in A/NZ) is spent on essential, more traditional CIO tasks related to managing the ongoing technology environment, including reducing IT costs, mitigating enterprise risks and leveraging automation to lower costs elsewhere in the business
- 85 percent of A/NZ CIOs said they believe their customer and business partner relationships and integration will be key to success, while globally almost 68 percent of respondents agreed partner collaboration will drive success
“CIOs are sharpening the focus on building smarter infrastructures and improving business efficiency,” said Matt English, A/NZ Smarter Planet Leader, IBM Global Business Services.
“This study provides insight into critical strategies for both today and the future, whether it’s transforming organisational processes or taking advantage of client and market opportunities across the region and around the globe.”
These results and other insights are detailed in the Global CIO Study 2009 released today, which is the largest face-to-face survey of CIOs ever conducted. The study, titled ‘The New Voice of the CIO’, represents the insights and vision of more than 2,500 CIOs from 78 countries, 19 industries, and organisations of every size. The study reinforces the increasingly strategic role that CIOs are playing as visionary and business leaders and as drivers of innovation and financial growth.
As the role of the CIO itself transforms so do the types of projects they lead across their enterprises, allowing CIOs to focus less time and resources on running internal infrastructure, and more time on transformation to help their companies grow revenue. The study shows that today’s CIOs spend an impressive 55 percent of their time on activities that drive innovation, whereas traditional IT tasks like infrastructure and operations management now make up only 45 percent. This confirms that CIOs are transforming their infrastructure to focus more on innovation and business value, rather than simply running IT.
In the study, CIOs also identified the top visionary projects that they are working on now or foresee implementing in the future, ranging from process improvement to taking advantage of technologies that can provide immediate and long-term financial impact. The study also confirmed that CIOs are focusing on mobility solutions and unified communications, collaboration and social networking tools, and Web 2.0 projects, to enable more effective communications for employees, customers, and partners.
“The role of the CIO continues to change dramatically. Not only are CIOs trying to standardise routine processes and infrastructure, they’re working to implement technologies to drive innovation and growth,” continued English. “The study reveals that CIOs are making the biggest impact on their organisations business by engaging directly with the business, spending more time on innovation, and by being active members of the executive team. CIOs are building new business models such as smart grids and smarter transportation and are looking to apply technologies in new kinds of innovation for their companies. These findings are consistent with what IBM is seeing in the marketplace, around both standardised technology and new business models.”
About the IBM 2009 CIO Study
The 2009 CIO Study is part of the IBM C-Suite Study Series. Published by the IBM Institute for Business Value, the C-Suite Study Series publishes in-depth studies for Chief Executive Officers, Chief Finance Officers, Chief Human Resource Officers and most recently, Chief Supply Chain Officers. The CIO Study included more than 2,500 face to face interviews, conducted over a four month period in early 2009. In addition to the detailed personal feedback, IBM also incorporated financial metrics and detailed statistical analysis into the findings.
The report also highlights a number of recommendations ranging from strategic business actions and use of key technologies that IBM has identified that CIOs can implement, based on CIO feedback from the study. The full 2009 CIO Study, podcasts and video interviews about the study are available at www.ibm.com/ciostudy.
Contact(s) information
Jessica
IBM Media Relations
(09) 359 8458
jgriffin@nz1.ibm.com
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