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Top CIOs Who Achieve Business Innovation Share Common Traits, Says Serena Software Survey
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — April 8, 2008 — In today's rapidly changing business climate, CIOs must break down traditional barriers between business and IT departments if they are to achieve business goals and succeed in the boardroom. But how? A new survey commissioned by Serena Software reveals that successful CIOs use three common strategies to move IT up the business continuum, from cost-cutting to value-driven projects. These lessons will help everyone think and act like a progressive CIO, which in turn will help companies use technology to make decisions faster and achieve business goals more efficiently.
Called "The Next CIO is You," the survey interviewed 100 CIOs in the U.S and Europe at companies with increasing revenues and increasing budgets. Survey results show that progressive CIOs are typically in their 30s, married with children, live in the suburbs or city, and have been with their current employer for an average of eight years.
The survey also found that top CIOs attribute their success to a broad understanding of business functions as well as good people skills, which combine to get them closer to their customers. 66% studied IT or computers in college, while 29% see themselves embodying both business and technical expertise.
Top CIOs Create a Business-Savvy IT Culture
Progressive CIOs strive to create a more business-savvy culture by:
1) Providing visibility into all projects, both major and minor, to understand how people, time, and resources are allocated.
- 98% of respondents say budgets for IT projects come from business functions as well as those under their direct control, making resource allocation even more complicated, and accurate, timely reporting even more important.
- 77% say IT is under more pressure to deliver results compared to five years ago; visibility into projects and resource effectiveness is essential to measuring ROI.
2) Assessing productivity gains and business improvements, making adjustments as needed.
- 74% say the IT leader of the future will need the ability to adapt quickly as priorities and needs shift.
- 44% say business transformation is the number one driver of major IT projects (71% in the UK), which is well ahead of cost reduction at 37% and revenue generation at 35% (in France 50%).
3) Practicing agility in setting priorities and trying new technologies, delivery platforms, and outsourcing relationships to get the job done more effectively.
- 55% say the ability to reduce upfront costs would reduce the risk of trying new applications and encourage innovation.
- 50% would like the ability to test new services for free.
- 48% in the U.S. and 38% in Europe have already tested a concept based on Software as a Service (SaaS) and then purchased similar software for installation at their site.
Top CIOs Embrace Web 2.0 Technologies
A recent Computerworld article titled "Are You Obsolete?" said, "IT needs to shift into a new role. It should continue its traditional responsibilities, such as governance, security and control of costs and return on investment. But it should loosen control over parts of the business intent on improving productivity through the use of downloadable rich Internet applications, social networking, collaboration tools and other Web 2.0 technologies."
Serena's survey results indicate that, while the urge for control remains strong, more CIOs are starting to recognize the value of engaging business workers in assessing new technologies, requirements gathering, and supplier evaluation. In fact, 69% believe that online social networking will be an important or useful business tool within two years.
Survey Methodology
Marketing research consultancy spxk (Six Primes Exchange Kernel) conducted "The Next CIO is You" survey in February 2008 by interviewing 100 CIOs in the U.S., UK, France, and Germany. Each respondent works in a company that showed revenue increases over the past couple years and had increased IT budgets. The survey was designed to explore the issues IT leaders face at work, their concerns and needs. More information about spxk is available at http://spxk.com.
More analysis of the survey results is available at www.serena.com/go/cio
About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena Software, Inc. provides services to make Enterprises and the business people within them more productive. More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions delivered either on premise or on demand, to provide visibility and efficiency to the application development process. The company provides software services such as Serena® Mariner® (Project & Portfolio Management), Serena Business Mashups and Serena® Dimensions® (Change & Requirements Management), and will be providing Agile Lifecycle Management tools in the near future. Serena is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit www.serena.com.
Serena, Mariner and Dimensions are registered trademarks of Serena Software, Inc. All other product or company names may be trademarks of their respective owners, and their use is intended for identification purposes only and not in association with or as sponsorship or endorsement by such owners. Copyright © 2008 Serena Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
