What are CIOs’ priorities for the next financial year?

Opinions about CIOs’ agendas for 2018 vary.

Gartner, who surveyed more than 3000 CIOs, has suggested that the roles of IT leaders are changing. As digitisation continues to advance, business expectations and technology trends are shifting. In 2018, CIOs will be focusing less on technology and more on information. They are moving away from technical roles and they’re becoming business executives. Their job is to make smart decisions, based on in-depth customer data, that will help to achieve their organisation’s chief objective, GROWTH. More than 120 IT leaders were surveyed at Crimson’s Innovation Conference in 2018. When asked the question ‘Compared to five years ago, is the CIO more or less important to your organisation?’ 73% responded that CIOs had become more important and only 9% said their CIO’s role had stayed the same.

IBM’s Business Partner Network has noticed the same trends as Gartner but has suggested that INNOVATION will be the key priority for CIOs, as they seek to set their organisation apart. It stated that in 2018 CIOs would continue to invest in BI and analytics tools to give them access to the intelligence required to generate successful innovations. CIOs remain the driver for innovation in most organisations. When surveyed, 51% of Crimson’s Innovation Conference attendees said the CIO was responsible for pushing for innovation in their organisation. Only 13% said their CEO oversees innovation and just 6% said they had a dedicated innovation leader.

Forrester has predicted that DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION plans will dominate business strategies in 2018, and that CEOs will look to their technology leaders to act as strategic partners overseeing many facets of change.

With our ear to the ground, Crimson believe Brexit is already changing the priorities for many CIOs, with some battening down the hatches, in terms of investments and IT recruitment, whilst others are embracing new opportunities. Either way, the focus will be on maintaining business SUSTAINABILITY and STABILITY within the uncertain economic / political climate.

In summary, the top four priorities for CIOs in 2018 will be:

1. Growth: Increase market share by any means.
2. Digital transformation: Most organisations will be focusing on becoming ‘digital businesses’, so CIOs will be seeking to reap economies of scale and maintain pace with the leading disruptors in their market places.
3. Profitability: CIOs will be attempting to improve efficiencies in current processes, and they will be looking for additional sources of revenue to support the push for growth.
4. Innovate: CIOs will also be looking to transform old products / services and develop new ones, so they can remain cutting-edge.

This article has been syndicated from Crimson's IT Salary Survey 2018 report. Click the image below to download your copy to discover salary rates for IT roles across the UK.

Crimson is an IT consultancy, an IT solutions provider, an IT recruitment agency, and a Microsoft Gold Partner operating across the UK.