Today’s CIO needs to be Business Leaders Too

Most CIOs think their responsibilities have evolved in recent years; business leaders expect them to make critical decisions beyond technology. The survey suggests that they even had to look into other business areas

If the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are given the freedom to revamp their tech infrastructure, they will replace half or more of their enterprise’s technology, says the latest global research conducted by Lenevo titled “Lenovo SSG Global Study of CIOs” throws more light on the evolution of the CIO’s job responsibilities and the crucial role they play in influencing the C-suite to overcome the challenges in their business scalability. More than 500 CIOs around the globe participated in the survey, which helped Lenovo come up with the following key findings.

Most CIOs think their responsibilities have evolved in recent years; business leaders expect them to make critical decisions beyond technology. The survey suggests that they even had to look into other business areas like data analytics and business reporting (56%), sustainability/ESG (45%), DE&I (42%), HR/talent acquisition (39%), and sales/marketing (32%).

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Industry 4.0 demands digital transformation to accomplish daily business goals and scale and stand out from the competition. The industry leaders expect today’s CIO to work closely with them to unleash the business’s digital capabilities to increase revenue and profitability and enhance the workflow.

With all these new responsibilities on the CIO’s plate, they find it challenging to tackle the problems related to data privacy/security (66%), cybersecurity/ransomware (66%), keeping up with technological change (65%), managing fragmented IT vendor ecosystems (61%) and adopting/deploying new technology (60%) as per the report.

The survey respondents also shed more light on the crucial role the vendors play in the success of their enterprise. 8 out of 10 respondents acknowledged that their tech vendors are intricately interwoven in the business workflow, where they assist in increasing their overall productivity.

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Technology is the most significant influencer of modern enterprises; hence the CIO has to take up the role of a business strategist as well. As the industry expects more from CIOs now than ever before, they face unprecedented challenges to enrich the business process, increase productivity, and deliver a top-notch customer experience. The survey conducted by Lenevo supports the fact because 82% of the CIOs say that their challenges have increased in the recent years because the majority of the industries are embracing the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation to acquire talent in a global remote workforce.

After a thorough analysis of their new challenges and increasing responsibilities, the CIOs believe that their current IT infrastructure has more room for improvement. 57% of the CIOs that took part in the survey say they would replace half or more of their enterprise’s current tech infrastructure if given the opportunity. 63% of the organizations use more Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) than in the preceding year.   As the business models are constantly changing, 92% of the CIOs are considering adopting As a Service (aaS) in the next two years.

To overcome the challenges of intricate digital transformation journeys, enterprises require streamlined and scalable IT solutions.

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