Self-Service to Compete

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IBM study finds self-service helps CIOs innovate and compete.
 
Global study by IBM of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) by IBM reveals that the top technologies for enhancing competitiveness over the next five years at high-growth midsize organisations are business intelligence and analytics and self service portals. 86% of midmarket CIOs identified business intelligence and analytics – the ability to see patterns in vast amounts of data and extract actionable insights – and 75% chose self service portals.
 
The study, titled “The New Voice of the CIO,” represents the insights and vision of more than 2,500 CIOs worldwide, including 158 CIOs in 31 countries employed at midsize organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees. The Midmarket Executive Summary illustrates the increasingly strategic organisational roles that CIOs play in areas such as setting strategy, enabling flexibility and change, and solving business problems.
 
As part of the research, the study looked at the difference between the responses of CIOs from organisations with high growth in profits before tax and CIOs from organizations with low growth. The findings revealed that all CIOs must juggle several complementary, yet sometimes conflicting, roles, but that CIOs at high-growth midsize organizations are especially proactive about championing innovation and co-creating business strategy.

The study also found that midmarket CIOs are bracing themselves for continued volatility – more than half (55%) anticipate changing their business models over the next three years. The most successful CIOs at midsize organisations spend close to two-thirds of their time on activities that spur innovation.
 
As CIOs in midsize organizations play an increasingly strategic role, they continue to seek new avenues for IT to produce greater business value. However, this must be balanced by an often competing pressure to lower costs and increase efficiency. In this study, midmarket CIOs in high-growth organizations are creating value by proactively turning the data their organisations hold into information that can be used to develop better products and services.
 
They are also taking the lead when it comes to exploring new ways of finding and interacting with customers. Over the next five years, 88% of high-growth midmarket CIOs plan to use new channels to attract and retain customers, while 80% plan to improve their organisations’ integration and transparency capabilities to satisfy customer expectations.
 
“Today’s economy is driving a period of unprecedented change, which the most successful CIOs at midsize organizations are embracing,” said Marc Dupaquier, general manager, IBM Global Midmarket. “They view technology as an enabler for solving problems in today’s smaller, flatter and smarter world. Today it’s not about how big you are, but about how smart you operate.”