CIO budgets up as CEO focus shifts from cost saving

Following the credit crunch, cost saving had been overwhelmingly the leading CEO priority between 2009 and 2013, but this has now turned to operational efficiencies with 63 percent of CEOs now preferring projects that make money – such as digital marketing, customer-oriented systems and innovation projects – to ones that save money.

Now in its 16th year and representing the views of more than 3,200 CIOs across more than 30 countries, some 46 percent experienced increases in their budgets – up from 42 percent last year and at its highest level since 2006 when 47 percent saw budget growth.

Albert Ellis, Chief Executive, Harvey Nash, said, “We are seeing a new spirit of optimism among CIOs. Growing budgets, a shift from cost saving to investment, innovation a key objective, digital transformation and an increasingly strategic role for many CIOs all point to a positive sense of expectation about new opportunities that lie ahead.”

Getting on board

The study also revealed an unchanged figure of CIOs reporting directly to the CEO – 32 percent, although exactly half of CIOs said they sat on their organisation’s executive committee – down from 54 percent last year.

In the recent CIO 100, 48 percent of CIOs reported to their chief executive, and similarly 50 percent said they had a seat on the board.

Dr Jonathan Mitchell, the former Rolls-Royce Global CIO, and now the non-executive chairman of the Harvey Nash CIO Practice, said, “Things are certainly looking up for CIOs and other IT leaders today. More than half of those holding CIO posts have a seat at the top table as genuine members of the executive team.

“While there was a slight fall in CIO representation at the top table from last year, the general trend is more than 20 percent higher than in the years before the financial crisis.”

Chief digital officers

The emergence of the chief digital officer also came through the survey, particularly at large organisations.

With 7 percent of respondents now employing a CDO, this figure rises to 16 percent at companies with technology budgets of more than $100 million.

These figures are also not too dissimilar to the CIO, where 12 percent of organisations reported having a CDO, and another 12 percent a separate digital leader reporting to the CIO. And while the CDO was more likely to report to the CIO (22 percent) than the chief marketing officer (16 percent), four in 10 report to the CEO.

 

Originally published on CIO (UK). Click here to read the original story. Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2024 International Data Group. All rights reserved.