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State of the CIO :: 2012 A Global Update

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CIO’s annual “State of the CIO” survey was conducted with the objective of

understanding how the role of the CIO continues to evolve in today’s business

climate and to help define the CIO agenda for 2012. This definitive benchmarking

survey, now in its 11th year, measures the role of the CIO in the organization,

budgetary responsibilities, business and leadership challenges, and the key skills

needed for the job today.

Purpose and Methodology

Survey Sample

Field Work Sept 12-21, 2011

Total Respondents 596

Margin of Error +/- 4.2%

Audience Base CIO Forum on

LinkedIn and CIO

audience

Survey Method

Collection Online Questionnaire

Number of

Questions

30 (incl. demographics)

Survey Goal

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

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CIO’s Moving from Functional to Strategic

Aligning IT initiatives with business goals 1 58% 1 60% 4 38%

Implementing new systems and architecture 3 47% 3 49% 8 31%

Cultivating the IT/business partnership 5 40% 4 43% 6 36%

Leading change efforts 6 38% 6 38% 4 38%

Redesigning business processes 7 33% 8 27% 7 33%

Improving IT operations/systems performance 2 53% 2 53% 11 24%

Cost control/expense management 4 45% 5 42% 13 15%

Managing IT crises 8 26% 7 28% 15 5%

Negotiating with IT vendors 8 26% 8 27% 14 10%

Security management 11 22% 11 23% 12 16%

Driving business innovation 10 25% 10 26% 1 53%

Developing and refining business strategy 12 21% 12 22% 3 40%

Identifying opportunities for competitive differentiation 13 17% 13 17% 2 43%

Developing new go-to-market strategies & technologies 14 9% 14 12% 9 28%

Studying market trends/customer needs to identify commercial opps. 14 9% 15 9% 10 27%

2011 2012 3-5 yrs.

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Q. Which of the following activities best characterize your focus and how you spend your time in your current role?

Q. Which of the following activities would you like to spend more time on in the next 3-5 years?

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

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Strategic Role More Prevalent in Emerging Markets

Tenure 5.57 years 5.48 years 4.83 years 4.94 years 4.08 years

Member of EC 66% 90% 79% 58% 69%

Transformational 54% 48% 50% 56% 42%

Strategic 22% 29% 25% 22% 32%

Functional 24% 24% 25% 22% 26%

Reports to CEO 36% 52% 50% 41% 46%

Reports to CFO 24% 10% 4% 33% 18%

North America

Central/South America

Africa/Middle East

Europe

Asia Pacific

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

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Macro Economics Fuel IT’s Focus

Q: How would you rate the following over the next 12 months?

27%

13%

8%

36%

21%

21%

21%

31%

38%

15%

34%

32%

IT Executives

A very good year

A somewhat good year

A somewhat challenging year

A very challenging year

Your industry’s business outlook

Your organization’s business outlook

Your team's/ division’s performance against metrics/goals

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

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LOB Understanding of IT will Accelerate Value

Q: How do you anticipate the following business and economic issues will impact your organization within the next 3 years?

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

Global recession

Growing threat to enterprise security

Broader understanding of IT by non-IT colleagues

Stagnant U.S. job growth

Growing economic strength in emerging economies such as China and India

6%

10%

17%

40%

77%

9%

29%

10%

33%

9%

82%

57%

69%

22%

9%

3%

5%

4%

6%

4%

Positive impact (net) No impact Negative impact (net) Not sure

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Slight Majority Recognize IT as Strategic Partner

Q: In general, how would you best characterize the way your company’s business stakeholders perceive the IT organization currently?

(Please select one only)

7%

15%

21% 27%

30%

Cost center

Service provider

IT partner

Business peer

Business game-changer

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

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Multiple Stakeholders Being Brought In

Actions taken to solidify or elevate IT’s

relationship with business stakeholders 2011 2012

Met more frequently with influential stakeholders 62% 59%

Fixed major problems with systems operations 50% 51%

Delegated more IT operations to trusted lieutenants 35% 46%

Created quick wins for business partners 44% 44%

Trained IT staff to partner better with business stakeholders 36% 41%

Initiated new products and services for competitive advantage 40% 40%

Created a portfolio approach to IT 37% 39%

Developed IT leadership capabilities in senior managers 28% 38%

Developed a cross-functional focus among IT managers 32% 36%

Cultivated a relationship with a board member 25% 29%

Trained IT staff to focus on external customers 25% 28%

Created a project management office 25% 27%

Called on customers 18% 23%

Deepened staff bench strength in management/leadership expertise 15% 18%

Q: Which of the following actions have you taken in the past year to solidify or elevate IT’s general relationship with business stakeholders?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

1

2

7

3

6

4

5

9

8

10

10

10

13

14

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

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Conclusions

CIOs continue to shift their focus toward Business Strategy and 2012 is a tipping point in that journey.

Macro economics are a concern, however transformative efforts continue unabated and enterprise security is a top concern in transformation.

CIOs are broadening their scope of responsibility beyond IT across the enterprise.

Tech initiatives now broaden beyond cloud to Mobile and Analytics however differences lie in global geo’s.

Business strategy is now table stakes for CIO’s and they are driving that approach across today’s IT organizations.

Source: State of the CIO Survey, CIO magazine, January 2012

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Contact

To view the full State of the CIO study please contact Adam Dennison at adennison@cio.com or Bob Melk at bmelk@idgenterprise.com.