Symposium Times

By Randy Frey, Symposium/ITxpoTimes

CIOs in 2009 found themselves being pulled in two directions at once – they needed to reduce and manage costs while still creating new levels of value for the business. Gartner Group Vice President and Head of Research Mark McDonald said that will not change in 2010 as CIOs prepare their agendas. The need to improve business performance is changing the shape of business demand for IT to demonstrate its value.

In his Symposium presentation “Meeting the Challenge: The 2010 CIO Agenda” (10 a.m., Dolphin’s Southern II-V), Mr. McDonald said that senior enterprise executives recognize that IT’s contribution to economic performance extends beyond managing expenditures. They expect IT to play a role in reducing enterprise costs, not merely with cost-cutting but by changing business processes, workforce practices and information use.

Sharing information from Gartner’s Annual CIO survey, Mr. McDonald said that 2009 was the first time in the past 10 years that CIOs reported an average reduction of the IT budget. And in 2010, CIOs will again be asked to reduce IT spending as well as reduce costs and resources required across the enterprise.

“Leading CIOs see business expectations requiring structural changes in the enterprise and IT,” said Mr. McDonald. “Delivering projects that enable business growth remains a top priority because enterprises must continue to execute projects that bring new products and services to market.”

How should CIOs lead in an environment of uncertainty and volatility? Mr. McDonald said that effective enterprises outperform their peers by achieving better results. He said effectiveness matters operationally because it gives enterprises greater confidence in their ability to achieve results.

“Effective businesses leverage IT to drive service, solutions and scale to customers and products,” he said. “This is in contrast to less effective enterprises who expect IT to remain focused solely on delivering technology services.”

Mr. McDonald said that in 2010, CIOs need to be decisive, do the first things fast, be resourceful, modernize, and prepare.

“The combination of an efficient and responsive IT resource base gives the CIO the ability and capacity to focus on the enterprise, its customers and offerings,” he said. “This comes in the form of driving sustained financial and operational improvements as well as focused market-based innovation.”

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