With IT enmeshed in every facet of a business, CIOs believe that their organisations must continue to invest in digital transformation to remain relevant. At the same time, the role of the CIO has become increasingly important within a business, with CIOs being asked to make business decisions that go far beyond technology.
This is according to a new global research study from Lenovo1, which interviewed more than 500 CIOs from around the world. The study reveals how the CIO role has evolved, shedding light on growing areas of responsibility and increasing influence in the C-Suite, as well as removing barriers to business growth.
Yugen Naidoo, General Manager of Lenovo Southern Africa, explains: “Gone are the days when a business could be siloed into its different operational areas – such as corporate strategy, finance, innovation, operations, and talent – and expect to thrive. Today, technology is the interconnection that allows different areas of the organisation to speak to each other for more informed and strategic decision making.
“It is imperative for key stakeholders across the organisation to drive the execution of common goals, and this task of connecting people who need be aligned with each other is increasingly being driven by the CIO. At the same time, these processes must be enabled by digital transformation.”
Key findings from Lenovo’s global survey include the following:
As the CIO role expands and evolves, technology vendors play an invaluable role in their company’s overall success.
Sixty-one percent of the CIOs in the study noted that the business would feel an impact in no more than a few weeks if they halted spending on digital transformation initiatives. This speaks to technology’s role as a critical component of the business, not just a source of cost efficiencies.
Looking ahead, CIOs expect to turn to their vendors to help them solve a number of different problems in the next five years, including increasing their organisational agility (60 percent of respondents) and providing security of their company’s systems and operations (52 percent), as well as to simplify the configuration, deployment and maintenance of technology (50 percent), and optimise costs (43 percent).
Nearly all CIOs surveyed believe their roles have evolved and expanded in the past few years, and that they are being asked to make business decisions that go far beyond technology.
Eighty-two percent of those surveyed said the CIO role has become more challenging compared with just two years ago, and that they are confronting a vast array of unique challenges, from the increasing use of AI and automation, to talent acquisition in a global, remote workforce.
CIOs find it most difficult to solve challenges related to data privacy/security (66 percent), cybersecurity/ransomware (66 percent), keeping up with technological change (65 percent), managing fragmented IT vendor ecosystems (61 percent) and adopting/deploying new technology (60 percent).
Considering their evolving challenges and responsibilities, CIOs suggest their current tech stack has significant room for improvement.
In the quest to increase organisational agility and streamline operations cost, 57 percent of CIOs think at least half their current tech stack is serviceable but could be improved – with one in five (21 percent) wanting to replace almost all of their tech stack.
Naidoo continues: “Lenovo’s research has revealed that CIOs are more involved than ever before in areas outside their traditional technology role, and this includes decision making that relates to business model transformation, corporate strategy, and sustainability. Businesses of all sizes need the flexibility to stay competitive, and a scalable, cloud-like solution model is the answer.”
To manage an increasingly complex digital transformation journey, businesses need simple and flexible IT solutions. Lenovo’s solutions provide organisations the breadth of Everything-as-a-Service offerings in Lenovo TruScale; the flexibility to pay for the infrastructure solutions they need, as long as they need; and the depth of expertise and services that empower CIOs to focus more on their strategic imperatives.
“Going forward, for an organisation to successfully navigate the digital transformation pathway, the role of the CIO must continue to evolve,” notes Naidoo. “Digital transformation plays a role in driving improved customer experience, improving agility and flexibility, reducing costs, increasing productivity and thus revenues, and improving decision making.
“It falls on technology teams – driven by the CIOs – to navigate this pathway and align technology spend with business strategy to ensure a successful digital transformation, across the local business landscape and deeper into Africa. Lenovo looks forward to playing a continued role in digital transformation through the provision of both the required technology as well as our strategic information to help drive informed business decision-making,” he concludes.
The full study is available at Lenovo Tech Today.
About Lenovo SSG Global Study of CIOs
Fieldwork for this study was conducted via a quantitative survey from December 6, 2021 to December 21, 2021, among a total of 525 global CIOs. The survey sample comprised of a near equal number of respondents from each market: Brazil, China, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. Respondents included CIOs of companies and organizations with at least 250 total employees.