CIO Priorities 2011
As many companies have left the difficult years of 2008 and 2009 behind them the change from 2010 to 2011 is more an evolution and continuation rather than a radical shift. In the annual survey about CIO priorities performed in November 2010 the number one in “Top 10 CIO BUSINESS Priorities for 2011” once again was “Improving Business Processes”. Over pervious year it was even stronger positioned and had a clear lead over the other responses. Next was “Delivering Better Customer Service: followed by “Cutting Costs”, which is still important but less than in previous years. Right thereafter “Innovating new Product / Services” brings back the search for IT enabled innovation. Many IT organizations have started a stronger focus on innovation and sometimes have already created innovations teams to work close together with the business units in order to drive innovation.
Top CIO BUSINESS Priorities for 2011 | Rank |
Improving Business Processes | 1 |
Delivering Better Customer Service | 2 |
Cutting Costs | 3 |
Top CIO MANAGEMENT Priorities | Rank |
Improving Alignment with Business Objectives | 1 |
Improving Application Development Capabilities | 2 |
Improving Leadership and Mgmt Development | 3 |
Top CIO TECHNOLOGY Priorities | Rank |
Creating or Improving Strategic Applications | 1 |
Reducing Total Cost of Ownership | 2 |
Expanding IT Infrastructure to Keep up with Growth | 3 |
Asked about the “Top 10 CIO MANAGEMENT Priorities for 2011” the priorities one and two are reinforced from 2010 with “Improving Alignment with Business Objectives” leading and “Improving Application Development Capabilities” on the second place. This does not necessarily mean IT organizations are hiring and building more development resources, as the majority of organizations are strengthening their capabilities through external and often offshore capabilities. Global sourcing is for larger companies a reality with some countries trailing behind. The third priority is a big change from 2010 and is “Improving Leadership and Management Development”.
On the technology side “Creating / Improving Strategic Applications” was number one, followed by “Reducing Total Cost of Ownership” and “Expanding IT Infrastructure”. A big change happened around Virtualization with a full swing from Server Virtualization in 2010 to Client Virtualization in 2011.
For a better understanding of this ranking we have to say those priorities are taken from well developed and mature countries and therefore we see a strong business focus. Emerging countries having a stronger focus on organizational and service maturity and are less focused on generating business value. The leadership and management prioritization is a very positive sign showing the CIO’s have understood the necessity of a great team and mature management. More on this subject also in our next article.