CIOs target key technologies

IBM survey yields interesting results

A new global study of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) by IBM reveals that the top technologies for enhancing competitiveness over the next five years at high-growth midsize organizations are business intelligence and analytics and self service portals.

Eighty-six percent of midmarket CIOs identified business intelligence and analytics – the ability to see patterns in vast amounts of data and extract actionable insights – and three-quarters chose self service portals.

As part of the research, the study looked at the difference between the responses of CIOs from organizations with high growth in profits before tax and CIOs from organizations with low growth.

The findings revealed that all CIOs must juggle several complementary, yet sometimes conflicting, roles, but that CIOs at high-growth midsize organizations are especially proactive about championing innovation and co-creating business strategy.

“Today’s economy is driving a period of unprecedented change, which the most successful CIOs at midsize organizations are embracing,” said Marc Dupaquier, general manager, IBM Global Midmarket. “They view technology as an enabler for solving problems in today’s smaller, flatter and smarter world. Today it’s not about how big you are, but about how smart you operate.”

As CIOs in midsize organizations play an increasingly strategic role, they continue to seek new avenues for IT to produce greater business value. However, this must be balanced by an often competing pressure to lower costs and increase efficiency. In this study, midmarket CIOs in high-growth organizations are creating value by proactively turning the data their organizations hold into information that can be used to develop better products and services.

They are also taking the lead when it comes to exploring new ways of finding and interacting with customers. Over the next five years, 88 percent of high-growth midmarket CIOs plan to use new channels to attract and retain customers, while 80 percent plan to improve their organizations’ integration and transparency capabilities to satisfy customer expectations. This contrasts sharply with just 72 percent and 45 percent, respectively, of low-growth midmarket CIOs.