How the CIO’s Role Will Change by 2018
“I” in CIO Means Innovation
During the next two years, the primary role of 70% of CIOs will change from directly managing IT to becoming innovation partners.
From CxOs to Strategic Planning Partners
By 2017, 40% of CIOs will rise to the challenge of becoming strategic partners—and not just act as CxOs.
CIOs to Increase Risk Exposure
In an effort to reduce IT costs and accelerate business agility through more cloud computing, 70% of CIOs will expose their enterprise to additional risk.
Mobile Business Will Require More Support
By 2017, as a result of enterprise mobility, 60% of CIOs will support agile architectures with a mix of cloud-based interfaces for legacy and next-generation apps.
Demographic Shift to Public Social Networks
80% of CIOs in consumer businesses will integrate IT with public social networks by 2015 in order to meet the needs of young and mobile customers.
Gap Between Business and IT Planning Unsustainable
IDC expects 60% of CIOs to recognize the importance of developing a fully functional enterprise architecture linked to service development and planning, but says less than 40% will deploy that architecture effectively.
Inadequate Security for Legacy Systems
By 2015, 60% of IT security budgets for increasingly vulnerable legacy systems will be too small by a factor of 30% to 40%.
Increased Vulnerability to Knowledgeable Insiders
While the total spend for security to combat attacks from knowledgeable insiders is $5 billion, only $617 million is spent on the analysis of threats and protection. The challenge for CIOs is to help executives understand how increased spending can better defend the enterprise from insider threats.
Anemic IT Budgets Through 2018
Vendors will provide mobile, social, big data and cloud services. This service is becoming known as the “Third Platform.” By 2017, the transfer to Third Platform from line-of-business budgets will require 60% of CIOs to reduce the cost of infrastructure and operations.
IT-as-a-Service to Emerge
By 2016, 80% of the IT budget will be based on internally sourced IT and business services. By 2018, Third Platform technologies will redefine 90% of IT roles.
Recommendations For CIOs
IDC’s advice includes: Delegate the role of technology manager to a CTO, so that you can focus on information intelligence and innovation. Shift enterprise architecture from its IT focus to include Third Platform business architecture and transformation. Ensure that everything IT does is positioned to support business value by developing a comprehensive service portfolio.
Dealing With Third Platform Skills Shortages
IDC expects Third Platform skills shortages to inhibit 33% of projects until 2018. It recommends identifying strategic skills that must be developed and kept in-house, such as business intelligence and security, and outsourcing the rest.
