CIOs are in danger of losing their seat at the boardroom
table as they concentrate on cutting costs instead of preparing the
company for the upturn.
This is the main finding of research by Harris for Microsoft
into 1,200 CIOs' priorities and spending plans published today. The
research covered the US, UK, Japan and Germany.
Ed Anderson, communications director for Microsoft's server
tools, said dealing with the recession meant IT was backtracking
the steps it had taken to reposition itself as a strategic
tool.
The study found that 51% of respondents said that budget
constraints were the biggest barrier to their innovation plans, and
55% said the recession had changed the role of IT.
Nearly 66% planned to increase their investment in at least one
infrastructure technology, such as virtualisation, security,
systems management and cloud computing. These all could help
organisations streamline operations and increase profits, Anderson
said.
IT managers in the UK and Japan said they would spend 41% of
their budgets on innovation, with the rest spent on maintaining
current systems. German CIOs planned to spend 35% of their budgets
on innovation, but their US colleagues only 29%.
Bob Kelly, Microsoft's vice-president of infrastructure server
marketing, said firms that did not spend more on IT innovation
would not be as well positioned for the recovery. He said IT could
contribute to holding down costs in other parts of the business.
"Now, more than ever, IT is a strategic asset," he said.
Only 22% of respondents said giving the business a competitive
edge was their top priority. Driving business efficiency (48%) and
reducing IT costs (30%) ranked higher.
The respondents said security was their top challenge in
managing their infrastructure, and 73% said protection of customer
and company data would be their top security priority over the next
one to three years.
Most saw security as an business enabler. More than half thought
IT security included advancing overall business goals (52%) and
increasing end-user productivity (51%).