Scope of CIO's responsibilities continues to expand, according to META Group study

The study, Driving the Business Value With IT, reveals that only 58% of responding CIOs believe their scope of responsibility was "traditional CIO," the lowest margin in the two years META Group's Executive Directions service has been conducting the survey. More than 40% of responding CIOs indicated their job scope included other business functions, from facilities to HR, and 29% specifically indicated their job scope included responsibility for leading or supporting business transformation.

"Given the IT organization's end-to-end view of business processes, it is no surprise that CIOs are gaining responsibility for supporting business transformation," said CD Hobbs, senior vice president with META Group's Executive Directions. "Effective business transformation depends on an executive's ability to impact work routines by changing the business processes that define how work is done. The CIO has unique knowledge and insight valuable for business process management, re-engineering, and/or reconfiguration — all with the potential to alter culture in a positive manner while responding to market imperatives."

A host of factors are converging to improve the business's perception of the effectiveness and value of IT. Ubiquitous global networks developed over the past decade, combined with near-real-time production of performance metrics, gave global leaders much better command of cost and business management through the global economic downturn from 2000 to 2003. In addition, the ability of IT to contribute functionality and support during economic expansion during the early 2000s proved invaluable to executives managing costs and margins during the market contraction and further demonstrated IT's ability to support business management during economic contractions.

While the survey indicates significant improvement of the perception of IT as a tool for both business management and business transformation, responses also reveal a gap in reasons why between technologists and their business counterparts.

For example, 65% of survey respondents agree that the measures of IT's business value have changed over the past several years, reflecting changes in governance and advanced techniques for analyzing and measuring the benefit of IT investments. While one might guess that fiscal pressure is the major contributor to the changed perception, in fact, an equal number of respondents cite other drivers, particularly an improved perception of the overall effectiveness of the IT organization (60%) and increased influence of compliance and risk management (30%). The improved market in general, encouraging new investment in IT for growth, was third in importance but also significant.

"Business executives, including CEOs, are recognizing and expect access to the transformational potential of IT," said Hobbs. "CIOs must master and be prepared to deliver the transformational capability of the IT organization (ITO) across the enterprise to sustain the improved credibility of the ITO gained in the first few years of this century. High-performing CIOs will match ITO performance with the business perception of IT's value."

For top-level technology leaders — spanning every industry, organizational size, and level of experience — META Group's Executive Directions provides unrivaled guidance for speeding executive decisions and driving IT/business value. An exclusive service offering, Executive Directions offers CxOs one-on-one support and coaching to improve their organizations' information agility — and credibility.

At GITEX, META Group's stand can be found within the DIC Community Zone in Concourse 2, between Exhibition Halls 7 and 8, at the Dubai World Trade Centre Complex (DWTC) during GITEX.