CIOs developing head for business, survey finds

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IT executives, like chief information officers (CIOs), are becoming more closely aligned with their non-IT counterparts in identifying and working together to accomplish them, new research has found.

But the survey of 452 'C-level' executives carried out in January by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) also revealed a lingering "perception gap" means the business and IT still have some way to go to before their goals can be said to be fully aligned.

The research, sponsored by service management software vendor BMC, follows a similar survey conducted in October 2006. It confirmed the two-year-old findings that IT executives think they are more closely aligned with the "business side of the enterprise" than business executives perceive them to be.

But it urges CIOs to overcome this perception if they are to play a more strategic role in business success.

Only 20 per cent of non-IT respondents and 21 per cent of IT respondents said that IT's alignment with the business's broader objectives were well aligned or perfectly aligned two years ago. This had risen to 40 per cent of non-IT executives and 55 per cent of CIOs at the beginning of this year.

But, IT executives were more positive about the alignment of IT-business objectives than non-IT executives, in much the same proportions as in 2006: 61 per cent of IT executives said their operations are well or perfectly aligned, compared with 63 per cent before, but only 47 per cent of non-IT respondents agreed, versus 49 per cent in the first survey.

The survey also found a growing expectation that CIOs will continue to become more influential within their organisations. Some 65 per cent of non-IT executives said it was likely that the CIO's role would expand to include more involvement in business improvement within the next year, compared to half (50 per cent) in 2006.

But in both surveys, 64 per cent of non-IT executives said that the chief executive and his team had the final say over strategic IT investment decisions.

Despite this, confidence between both groups was high that IT would eventually help narrow gaps in perception and alignment, with IT monitoring, service management and process automation technologies garnering the most endorsements. And technology and manufacturing business executives led the way in believing themselves capable of expressing and prioritising its IT needs effectively for 69 and 82 per cent respectively.

"Business and IT executives are now closer to agreeing on how their respective goals should harmonise," said Debra D'Agostino, the Economist Intelligence Unit's senior technology editor. "This is encouraging, but considerable work remains to be done."

She added that better communication and greater consensus, in addition to establishing clear near and long-term IT objectives would be key to better perceived alignment.

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