Megatrends fast changing the role of CIOs: Forrester

• Mobile, cloud, enterprise social and big data to dominate the next decade
• 80% of CIOs acknowledge they should actually be spending two-thirds of their time with the business

THE role of the chief information officer (CIO) is changing fast as many organizations see technology as a business amplifier and industry ‘megatrends’ dominate the landscape, said an analyst.
 
“The role of the CIO is changing fast – from being a facilitator of technology deployments to becoming a technology solution specialist,” said Dane Anderson (pic), vice president, research director and region manager for Forrester Research.
 
“Organizations now look for CIOs who move beyond concentrating on IT as a force for operational automation, integration and control to seeing how technology can serve as a business amplifier and source of innovation.
 
“In fact, 80% of CIOs acknowledge that they should actually be spending two-thirds of their time with the business,” he said at Microsoft’s recent ‘Breakfast with Visionaries’ event, attended by over 100 CIOs, the US tech giant said in a statement.
 
The discussion centered on how mobile, cloud, enterprise social and big data will dominate the next decade and drive at least 80% of the industry’s growth by the year 2020.
 
Anderson also said that emerging markets will account for almost one-third of global IT spending and drive 53% of IT spending growth in 2012. Cloud, mobility, big data analytics and enterprise social will prove to be key categories of enterprise IT spend.
 
“Without a doubt, Malaysian organizations are already starting to see the impact of these four megatrends from the highest levels of management to employees at the frontlines,” said Andy Tan (pic), senior general manager of the Information Technology Department at Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund, who was a panelist at the event.
 
Microsoft said the four megatrends will certainly drive consumer-driven experiences and a new computing paradigm, which will, in turn, accelerate the magnitude of change today and provide enterprises with new opportunities:

• Cloud computing will lower barriers to entry for market players to access computing power, require more flexible development models, more efficient application delivery and drive greater speed to market

• Mobility will drive a need for changing, flexible work styles as well as mew and different types of devices, with a growing expectation for always-on connectivity and anywhere access to apps and data

• Enterprise social will see a cultural shift in how people interact, with online customer engagement now becoming a business differentiator, as well as discovering new ways to connect and share

• Big data will see massive data growth and the availability of third-party data, which leads to globalization of markets as well as more segmented customer audiences

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