Digital technologies top priorities in 2013: Gartner

Mobile, analytics, big data, social and cloud have reached tipping point with business executives

Enterprises realise an average only 43% of technology’s business potential, according to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner Inc.’s Executive Programs. That number has to grow for IT to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world, it said.
 
The worldwide survey was conducted in the fourth quarter in 2012 and included 2,053 CIOs, representing more than $230 billion in CIO IT budgets and covering 36 industries in 41 countries. The Gartner Executive Programs report, “Hunting and Harvesting in a Digital World: The 2013 CIO Agenda,” represents the world’s most comprehensive examination of business priorities and CIO strategies.
 
Over the last 18 months, digital technologies—including mobile, analytics, big data, social and cloud—have reached a tipping point with business executives. Analysts said there is no choice but to increase technology’s potential in the enterprise, and this means evolving IT’s strategies, priorities and plans beyond tending to the usual concerns as CIOs expect their 2013 IT budgets to be essentially flat for fifth straight year.
 
"Digital technologies provide a platform to achieve results, but only if CIOs adopt new roles and behaviors to find digital value,” said Mark McDonald, group vice president and Gartner Fellow. CIOs require a new agenda that incorporates hunting for new digital innovations and opportunities, and harvesting value from products, services and operations, he said.
 
“In a world of change, it is concerning that around half of CIOs surveyed do not see IT’s enterprise role changing over the next three years,” McDonald said. “IT needs new tools if it hopes to hunt for technology-intensive innovation and harvest raised business performance from transformed IT infrastructure, operations and applications. Without change, CIOs and IT consign themselves to tending a garden of legacy assets and responsibilities.”
 
The survey showed that CIO IT budgets have been flat to negative ever since the dot-com bust of 2002. For 2013, CIO IT budgets are projected to be slightly down, with a weighted global average decline of 0.5%.
 
Digital technologies dominate CIO technology priorities for 2013. The top 10 global technology priorities revealed by the survey reflect a greater emphasis on externally oriented digital technologies, as opposed to traditional IT/operationally oriented systems.