New research of global CIOs launched today from Expereo reveals that large global enterprises are moving ‘Faster to the Future’ with an increased focus on technology investment to fuel growth through global expansion.
The research, which includes insights from 200 CIOs in the US, shows that half of global CIOs have secured increased technology budgets specifically to deliver growth and overcome existing challenges. Positive news for 40% of US CIOs who claim their global business ambitions are constrained by legacy connectivity and management systems. It also identifies that organizations may be missing growth opportunities by failing to prioritize regions with some of the world’s fastest growing economies, due to perceived complexity and challenges to market entry.
Ben Elms, Chief Revenue Officer at Expereo comments, “As organizations focus on driving growth through global expansion, there are clearly complexities and challenges to overcome. The business-critical nature of connectivity in today’s world combined with an increasingly complex landscape – from security, regulation, skills and often challenging physical and geopolitical infrastructure – mean it’s no easy task. However, it is achievable. Those that find a way to simplify, automate and scale their operations will be in the best position to reap the rewards and growth that this can deliver.”
The future is bright
US CIOs describe their organizations’ attitudes to growth as optimistic (29%) and nearly a third (32%) as ambitious for the next 12 months. Over half (56%) of respondents claim their boards have already increased technology budgets to help drive this.
5G (69%), IOT (67%) and security (66%) were identified as the top three areas set for increased tech investments in the US in the next four months, closely followed by edge computing (64%), SaaS and automation/analytics (both 62%) and public and hybrid cloud (60%). US CIOs claim that this investment will drive global growth by prioritizing increased innovation (54%), new products (52%), increased automation (51%) and expansion into new markets (48%).
More markets, more problems
Over half (54%) of US CIOs claimed that establishing and managing connectivity in new markets is the single most critical factor in ensuring successful global expansion, and 49% said that their board views global connectivity as a business asset critical to growth, but there are challenges to overcome.
When asked specifically about the biggest challenge to delivering global growth in new regions, 38% said that effectively establishing connectivity in new regions is one of the major challenges in their role, and 36% a major challenge for their organization. Additional challenges identified were security environments and skills and resource retention (both 38%), skills and resource recruitment and legacy systems (both 37%), complicated physical and geopolitical infrastructure (36%), regulation and compliance (35%), and lack of visibility of global connectivity management (31%).
Perceived complexity an obstacle to global growth
Responses indicated that global enterprises may be failing to prioritize the fastest growing economies due to perceived complexities.
When asked about where their organization saw the biggest opportunity for growth, the Americas and Europe dominated the top five for US CIOs. North America (45%) took the throne, followed by Central America (35%), Western Europe (33%), and Eastern Europe and South America (both 29%). Although North America appears in the top five, it also ranks as the most technologically challenging region to do business in regarding the local knowledge of providers (40%), robust connectivity (37%), scalability (36%), and agility and performance visibility (both 35%). Interestingly, it is also seen as a more challenging security environment than China – 30% compared to China’s 23%.
Given that the IMF’s most recent World Economic Outlook Report showed that growth projections in advanced economies was 1.4% for 2024, while emerging and developing markets was 4.2%, it is surprising that neither the Greater China Area nor Central & South Asia appear in the top five priority regions for growth. Each includes two of the fastest growing economies in the world – China and India. Perhaps this is due to both appearing consistently in the top 10 most challenging regions in terms of local technology provider knowledge (27% and 25% respectively), agility (24% and 30%), robust connectivity (23% and 25%), security (23% and 31%) and performance visibility (22% and 27%).
Ben Elms continues, “Realizing the growth opportunities that global expansion can deliver will be critical to the world economy in these challenging times. CIOs need to completely focus on supercharging this strategic growth wherever they are doing business in the world, not grappling with unnecessary logistical and connectivity challenges. That’s what Expereo is here for. We simplify and automate this, allowing our customers to get on with business.”
For the full report please visit: https://www.expereo.com/enterprise-horizons
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Expereo is a leading global provider of managed network solutions including, Global Internet, SD-WAN/SASE, and Enhanced Internet. With an extensive global reach, Expereo is the trusted partner of 30% of Fortune 500 companies. It powers enterprise and government sites in more than 190 countries, helping customers improve productivity and empowering their networks and cloud services with the agility, flexibility and value of the Internet, with optimal network performance.
Expereo was acquired in Feb 2021, by Vitruvian Partners. The international growth capital and buyout firm, acquired a majority shareholding from leading European private equity firm, Seven2.