Top 10 Business and Technology Priorities in 2007: Gartner Survey
There
is a clear difference between the business executive's expectations of IT
and what CIOs say is important in the near term and where they are
focusing their attention, according to a worldwide survey of more than
1,400 CIOs by Gartner Executive Programs (EXP). |
2007 Business and CIO Priorities |
|
| Business Near-Term Expectations of IT |
CIO Near-Term Strategies for IT |
|
Improve business process |
Improve the quality of IT services |
|
Control enterprise cost structure |
Improving IT governance |
|
Attracting, retaining and growing customers |
Improve the link between business and IT |
|
Improve workforce effectiveness |
Demonstrating the business value of IT |
|
Grow revenue |
Building business skills in IT |
| Note:
Near-term priorities are those that are expected to be addressed
in the next 12 months. Source: Gartner EXP (February 2007) |
|
CIOs can further play a greater role in leveraging information, the understanding that drives performance and innovation, says Gartner.
|
Top 10 Business and Technology Priorities in 2007 |
|||
Top 10 Business Priorities |
Rank |
Top 10 Technology Priorities |
Rank |
|
Business process improvement |
1 |
Business Intelligence applications |
1 |
|
Controlling enterprise-wide operating costs |
2 |
Enterprise applications (ERP, CRM and others) |
2 |
|
Attract, retain and grow customer relationships |
3 |
Legacy application modernization |
3 |
|
Improve effectiveness of enterprise workforce |
4 |
Networking, voice and data communications |
4 |
|
Revenue growth |
5 |
Servers and storage technologies (virtualization) |
5 |
|
Improving competitiveness |
6 |
Security technologies |
6 |
|
Using intelligence in products and services |
7 |
Service-oriented architectures |
7 |
|
Deploy new business capabilities to meet strategic goals |
8 |
Technical infrastructure management |
8 |
|
Enter new markets, new products or new services |
9 |
Document management |
9 |
|
Faster innovation |
10 |
Collaboration technologies |
10 |
| Source: Gartner EXP (February 2007) | |||
IT Investments:
Worldwide IT budgets are expected to increase by an average of 3% in 2007, up slightly from 2006 IT budget increases of 2.7%.
- 51% of CIOs expect a planned IT budget increase.
- 30% of CIOs report no change in their budget from 2006 to 2007
- 19% of CIOs report a planned IT budget decrease.
- 63% of CIOs report that in 2007 their enterprise expects to increase its market share or expand its mission in 2007. That is approximately double as many as in 2006.
Business executives expect IT to raise current performance and build new capabilities. "Doing more with less — cutting IT costs will not realize these goals," Gartner said.
CIOs need to exploit new approaches to transform the business, drawing on the following sources of enterprise leverage:
-
Technology: 63% of CIOs do not have the right skills in the right amount.
-
Agility: Managing the speed, scale, cost and risk of change through applying change management disciplines.
-
Information: Only 36% of CIOs believe that management is using the right information to run the business.
-
Innovation: 86% of enterprises see innovation as critical to success, but only 26% of enterprises believe that their current innovation level is sufficient to achieve their strategy.
The Gartner EXP CIO report Creating Enterprise Leverage: The 2007 CIO Agenda is the most comprehensive report to identify key CIO issues, as it draws on the responses of more than 1,400 CIOs. The worldwide survey represents CIOs with an average IT budget of $90 million, accounting for more than $100 billion of IT spending, as well as all major industries and countries.
