2016 State of the CIO
If you haven’t, you should take the time to read this year’s State of the CIO Survey. As always, it’s informative and interesting. This year’s major takeaway is that IT leaders are struggling to find a balance between the need for basic, traditional IT-related tasks (security, efficiency) and digital transformation (driving the business).
While you can read the entire article here, we’d like to share some of the things that stood out the most to us. It’s important to note that the survey focused largely on the differences between three types of CIOs: Strategic, transformational and functional.
The role of the CIO is a complex one – so do they find this role to be rewarding? According to the survey, strategic (71%) and transformational (69%) CIOs find their jobs more rewarding than functional (47%) CIOs.
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
Functional IT leaders are the most frustrated of the three types. They are most likely to feel that the CIO is being sidelined (29%), be viewed by other departments as an obstacle to their mission (40%) and say IT is scapegoated when other departments miss their goals (60%).
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
Over time, the number of transformational CIOs is declining, while functional and business strategist CIOs currently account for the same percentage of CIO archetypes (smaller companies require IT leaders to delegate and take on different roles at times, which is why there may be a rise in functional CIOs).
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
In terms of the focus of CIOs, it’s no surprise that the current trend is a focus on security.
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
IT is increasingly becoming a more valuable sector of the overall business, responsible for contributing to and executing business strategy. So, how many IT leaders pay attention to business-IT alignment? Just fifty-one percent.
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
With so much talk about business alignment, who does the CIO report to? Forty-six percent report to the CEO!
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
This chart largely speaks for itself, breaking down the business drivers of IT investments by the type of CIO.
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
In order to fully align with the business, many CIOs are realizing the importance of having strong partnerships with other leaders within the company. However, when IT is considered a business partner, the CIO is more likely to be responsible for approving purchases and making final decisions for marketing. In only 33% of companies does marketing have its own technology budget.
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
IT is definitely not an industry that stays stagnant – nor is the role of the CIO. It will be interesting to find out where things stand a year from now, as CIOs continue to push for greater strategic integration with the business. At DCG we’re enabling greater IT/business integration with the Value Visualization Framework. As such, we hope to see a continued path forward in this direction.
Source: State of the CIO 2016: It's Complicated
Michael, it's interesting that Aligning Business with IT and Implementing New Systems have taken a similar fall over the last three years at the expense of security. Perhaps that makes sense, as the need to ensure business/IT alignment is certainly strong when new systems are being considered and implemented (not that that's the only business/IT alignment subject). What I would find interesting is the business/IT alignment around the allocation of IT resources across run/fix/grow/secure. i.e The graphs report the change in CIO's overall focus, but to what degree do their business customers endorse that shift? Good article. Mike.