Only 38pc of CIOs believe their organisations view IT as a value adding partner, according to the findings of the Deloitte CIO survey 2010.
While this represents a slight improvement on last year’s survey (which came in at 24pc), the findings suggest that IT departments are either undervalued or are not adequately conveying their importance to the overall organisation.
This year’s findings also show that the worst of reductions in IT budgets may be over, while the previous year’s survey found nearly 60pc of respondents expected IT budget cuts in 2010, while a smaller proportion (6pc) expected an increase in cuts.
“Businesses are still looking for IT departments to further reduce costs and align themselves with the business … there is also a very real opportunity for them to showcase just how much they can contribute to the strategic running of the organisation. By achieving this objective, IT departments will successfully align themselves with the business and demonstrate their full value. However, the time for CIOs to prove their value is now,” said Harry Goddard, partner, consulting, Deloitte.
Other findings of the Deloitte CIO survey 2010:
- 38pc of respondents say their organisation use social media to interact with employees/customers.
- Almost 80pc of respondents are not aware of their IT department’s contribution to the firm’s carbon emissions.
33pc of firms are using cloud computing
The survey also investigated CIO sentiment towards cloud computing. The findings show that, despite the fact that adoption among participants was relatively low – 33pc are currently using cloud computing in their organisation – 80pc of those that are view cloud computing as a strategic change in terms of delivering IT services. They are also realising the expected benefits, including reduced costs, increased efficiency and scalability.
For those respondents that have yet to implement cloud computing, 70pc are currently researching using it, with software as a service being the primary focus.
“The fact that cloud computing is not a priority for many Irish CIOs is somewhat surprising. The danger of this may be that cloud computing initiatives will be driven by the business and not by the IT department … The opportunity to do this is now, and cloud computing can offer very real solutions to the challenges that currently exist,” said Goddard.
Silicon Republic has embarked on its Cloud Centre campaign to better inform businesses about opportunities in cloud computing. To visit our Cloud Centre, click here
