Technology Leaders Must Swap Control for Influence in a New Digital Age - Harvey Nash / TelecityGroup CIO Survey 2013

News provided by

Harvey Nash

14 May, 2013, 10:26 GMT

LONDON, May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

More than one in five CIOs believe that their direct control over technology has diminished since the start of the recession, whilst the proportion of companies where more than ten per cent of technology spend lies outside the control of the IT department has almost doubled to 40 per cent in the last three years.

Despite this, CIOs see their roles as growing in importance, but recognise that their value is increasingly driven through collaboration and influence, rather than direct control.

This is according to the 15th Annual CIO Technology Survey 2013, conducted by Harvey Nash in association with TelecityGroup, presenting the views of more than 2,000 CIOs and technology leaders across twenty countries.

Key indicators of how direct control is changing for CIOs:

  • Growth in 'informal' IT: The proportion of IT departments where 10 per cent or more of IT spend is controlled outside the IT department has increased from 23 per cent in 2011, to 33 per cent in 2012, to 40 per cent in 2013
  • Marketing, Sales and specialist Digital teams increasingly becoming technology 'owners': One third (33 per cent) of digital projects are owned and run by marketing alone and a further 42 per cent are jointly run by IT and marketing
  • Growth in Bring Your Own Device: 46 per cent expect the proportion of their IT estate to be owned and managed directly by users to grow over the next year  
  • Continuing trend of using external providers rather than internal teams: 43 per cent expect to increase spend on outsourcing, almost three times as many as those expecting a decline in spend (16 per cent). 27 per cent of IT departments employ a quarter or more of their team on a flexible basis; the highest it has been since the survey started tracking this factor in 2010.

About the research:

(i) Survey conducted online by Harvey Nash between 07 January 2013 and 01 April 2013 amongst 2,038 senior level IT professionals from businesses across the world.  This is the 15th in a series of annual CIO surveys conducted by Harvey Nash to identify emerging trends and issues in IT leadership.

(ii) To read the full article, please visit http://www.harveynash.com

Media Relations contacts:
Rob Grimsey
Group Marketing Director, Harvey Nash plc
Robert.grimsey@harveynash.com 
+44(0)20-7333-0033