Survey reveals challenges remain before vision of IT / business integration can be fully realized
CIOs and other IT executives have made significant progress in their long-standing efforts to tightly align and coordinate their IT departments with their organizations’ business units. Despite this progress, according to the results of the “CIOs at a Technology and Cultural Crossroads” survey announced by Red Hat obstacles remain before the vision of true IT and business integration can be fully realized.
The survey, commissioned by Red Hat through CIO Strategic Marketing Services /IDG Research Services polled 100 respondents at the IT director level and above at organizations with 1,000 or more employees about the current and future roles of CIOs. The survey results provide insight into the progress CIOs and other IT executives have made in assuming more strategic roles as well as into the challenges they continue to face but also raises fundamental questions about how CIOs can best drive business innovation within their companies and even suggests that getting the business and IT together may take something as fundamental as rethinking the CIO position itself.
Currently, many CIOs and other IT executives spend much of their time “keeping the lights on,” with 48 and 47 percent of respondents of selecting “improving IT operations / system performance,” and “implementing new systems and architectures” as one of their top five areas of focus, respectively.
“IT is a source of key business innovation, and it is the responsibility of IT executives to communicate the strategic value of that innovation,” said Lee Congdon, CIO, Red Hat. “The survey results clearly show the need for IT executives to have a broad understanding of their organization, and to increase the collaboration between IT and business leaders. It is through this collaborative innovation that not only perceptions will change, but also business results will be driven.”
