With no increase in IT budgets for 2012, CIOs will have to balance multiple priorities, according to analyst Gartner.
In a study of 2,300 CIOs for the Gartner Executive Program, the analyst predicted CIO IT budgets will remain flat, increasing just 0.5%, with declining IT budgets in North America and Europe.
Mark McDonald, group vice-president for Gartner Executive Programs and Gartner fellow, said: "CIOs concentrating on IT as a force of operational automation, integration and control are losing ground to executives who see technology as a business amplifier and source of innovation.”
According to McDonald, while the present economic conditions may tempt CIOs to force IT back into cost-cutting mode, senior executives expect technology to address the tough challenges by amplifying enterprise strategies and operations.
Meeting business expectations for increased growth, reduced cost or a transformed customer experience normally involves a significant increase in IT resources.
Top 10 CIO Business and Technology Priorities in 2012
Top 10 Business Priorities |
Ranking |
Top 10 Technology Priorities |
Ranking |
Increasing enterprise growth |
1 |
Analytics and business intelligence |
1 |
Attracting and retaining new customers |
2 |
Mobile technologies |
2 |
Reducing enterprise costs |
3 |
Cloud computing (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS) |
3 |
Creating new products and services (innovation) |
4 |
Collaboration technologies (workflow) |
4 |
Delivering operational results |
5 |
Legacy modernisation |
5 |
Improving efficiency |
6 |
IT management |
6 |
Improving profitability (margins) |
7 |
CRM |
7 |
Attracting and retaining the workforce |
8 |
ERP applications |
8 |
Improving marketing and sales effectiveness |
9 |
Security |
9 |
Expanding into new markets and geographies |
10 |
Virtualisation |
10 |
Source: Gartner Executive Programs (January 2012)
Analytics and business intelligence was the top-ranked technology for 2012. Gartner reported that 61% of organisations responding to the survey say they will be improving their mobile capability over the next three years. Most have a mobility strategy that calls for becoming a market leader in their industry — so there will be significant competition as each seeks to fight to the top of its industry.
"Mobility, social media, information and analytics can be used to re-imagine the customer experience, as well as sales and service channels. These technologies do more than automate or administer processes; they are the processes and the sources of value," McDonald said.
18 Jan 2012