Tomorrow's CIO Looking Very Much Like Today's CEO, InformationWeek Research FindsNew research finds emerging challenges abound for Tomorrow's CIO: Mastering Business Processes, Creating Customer Value and Experience Outside of ITPRNewswire-FirstCall SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InformationWeek, the leading multimedia business technology brand, released the results of an in-depth study that delves into the role of the CIO and their evolving influence within their organizations. The study, "Tomorrow's CIO", reveals that companies continue to demand business innovation and technology vision from CIOs while looking to CIOs for leadership across a broad range of issues. In addition, there are signs that the perception of the CIO role has slipped among other corporate officers, according to the latest report by InformationWeek's Analytics (http://www.informationweekanalytics.com/), an exclusive IT research and analysis service from TechWeb's InformationWeek (http://www.informationweek.com/). The InformationWeek Analytics Report on Tomorrow's CIO, written by John Soat, is now available at http://www.informationweekanalytics.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4 4 (Due to length of URL, please copy and paste into browser and remove the space if one exists) InformationWeek found that companies will continue to expect more than infrastructure management from CIOs and their IT organizations. The attributes considered extremely important by at least eight of 10 people surveyed are leadership, effective execution, collaboration, vision, innovation, and team building. In the survey of 720 business technology executives, 78% believe that the need to optimize business processes will drive the CIO's influence as a leader. Still, the study offers warning signs for CIOs. Only 39% of corporate managers outside IT say the influence of the CIO is increasing, down from 43% in InformationWeek's research a year ago. CIOs are slightly more bullish on themselves: 55% say the CIO's stature has increased in their organization, down from 66% a year ago. One third of the corporate managers surveyed describe the CIO as "actively involved" in the big corporate decisions, the same as last year. But only 30% of CIOs describe themselves as "actively involved," down from 38% last year. The research points to even greater changes for the CIOs waiting in the wings. New and future generations of CIOs will need a different skill set to master the CIO role of tomorrow. Experience other than IT is increasingly more critical to the CIO of tomorrow. Expectations are high for tomorrow's CIO -- a tech-savvy business leader and innovator, aggressive and effective, visionary and practical, innovative and process orientated. The survey indicates how important diverse experience is to the CIO role of the future. Effective future CIOs will likely need experience running a business unit outside IT. (see chart below) Very important 36% Valuable, but not critical 58% Not important 6% Although there are signs pointing towards less CIO influence, leadership continues to top the list of attributes critical for tomorrow's CIO; this was cited by more than nine of 10 respondents. The survey shows the following ranking of for CIO attributes: Leadership 94% Ability to execute and meet deadlines 89% Collaboration and communication 88% Vision 85% Innovation 81% Team building 80% Consensus building 68% Technical breadth and depth 55% Raw intellect 53% Sales orientation 35% The report also cited the major obstacles confronting CIOs and topping the list is the view of IT as a cost center rather than business enabler. The survey shows the following list of obstacles facing CIOs: CIOs/VPs Corporate
of IT Managers
The fact that IT is still viewed as
a cost center 70% 66%
The burden of ongoing IT maintenance 57% 50%
The fact that top management lacks
technology vision 41% 30%
Inability to attract and retain top
business technology talent 31% 29%
A risk-adverse corporate culture 29% 25%
The fact that more business executives are
involved in technology strategy 22% 24%
Diminished influence of the CIO in the
senior management ranks 20% 13%
"There's a dichotomy developing around the perception of the CIO. Where some organizations see a competitive advantage in their IT organizations, others suffer from the legacy perception that IT is a cost to be minimized," said Art Wittmann, Managing Director of InformationWeek Analytics. "Increasingly it's up to the CIO to prove the worth of IT investments." In conjunction with this research, InformationWeek also offers The CIO Assessment Tool, which evaluates the preparedness of CIOs for tomorrow's challenges. CIOs can assess their readiness by visiting: http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID =208403497 (Due to length of URL, please copy and paste into browser and remove the space if one exists) These survey results punctuate the theme of the 2008 InformationWeek 500 Conference, "Tomorrow's CIO." The annual event will be held September 14-16, 2008 at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, CA. The prestigious event will not only celebrate naming the top 500 IT organizations, it will also focus on preparing technology executives to meet the needs of tomorrow's dynamic business environment. The 2008 InformationWeek 500 Conference provides insights to the skills, experience and expertise that will ensure success for the CIO of the future. The Conference will feature in-depth, expert-led discussions on what it takes for current and next-generation CIOs to prosper, peer group dialogue including innovative sessions with leading CIOs designed to spark ideas and interaction, a keen focus on the technologies that will drive tomorrow's businesses and proven, unconventional strategies and processes to make it happen. To learn more about the Tomorrow's CIO research study, please visit: http://informationweekanalytics.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=44 . To learn more about the 2008 InformationWeek 500 Conference, please visit http://www.informationweek.com/conference/08fall/ or contact Scott Vaughan, Vice President, Marketing, TechWeb at svaughan@techweb.com or 949.223.3662. About InformationWeek Business Technology Network (http://www.informationweek.com/) The InformationWeek Business Technology Network provides business technology executives with unique perspective, market leading research and innovative tools that work in lock step with their work flow -- from defining and framing business technology objectives through to the evaluation and recommendation of specific solutions. The InformationWeek Business Technology Network delivers the entire market, from SMBs with bMighty.com to large-scale global companies with InformationWeek. We scale across the most critical technology categories in the market -- security with DarkReading.com, storage with ByteandSwitch.com, application architecture with IntelligentEnterprise.com, network architecture with NetworkComputing.com and communications with NoJitter.com. Through its multi-media platform and unique content-in-context information distribution system, the InformationWeek Business Technology Network provides trusted information developed both by editors and real world CIO/IT professionals delivered how and when business technology executives want it, 24/7. About TechWeb (http://www.techweb.com/aboutus) TechWeb, the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion. *13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections across TechWeb brands. Contact: Ellen Asuncion
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