Dive Brief:
- Nearly one-third of CIOs plan to spend more time driving business innovations in 2022, according to IDG's 2022 State of the CIO survey. The company included responses from almost 1,000 IT executives and 250 line-of-business leaders.
- Over half of line-of-business leaders see the CIO as a "strategic advisor who proactively identifies business opportunities," according to the survey. The perception of CIOs as strategic business advisors more than doubled since 2021.
- Tech leaders will continue to bring in revenue for their organizations in 2022, with 65% of leaders adding some form of revenue generation to their objectives for the year.
Dive Insight:
The perception of the CIO as a valued partner is increasing among line-of-business managers, as CIO responsibilities encompass more business strategy.
Collaboration is part of the strategy for advancing on business growth. Most CIOs are spending more time collaborating with lines of business, aiding in operations and product development.
"I see a huge trend towards more and more strategic dialogue with the board of directors down," said Brian Bronson, president of Americas and APAC at Capgemini Engineering, in December. The CIO will provide companies with holistic, strategic thinking about how to manage more aspects of the business than before.
IT budget numbers for 2022 suggest more ambition in the projects led by tech decision makers. With less uncertainty from the pandemic, companies are once again approving projects with three- to five-year timelines.
Gartner expects global IT spending to grow more than 5% in 2022, an increase partly driven by the rise in long-term projects.
While cybersecurity tops the list of technology initiatives in IDG's report, closely behind in the list of priorities are efforts to increase operational efficiency. Nearly half of executives list operations improvements as a top priority, up from 34% in the 2021 survey.
