Chief information officers (CIOs) need to work hard to bridge a growing gap between IT and the business, analyst Gartner has warned.
The organisation’s 2007 CIO Agenda Survey, published yesterday (Wednesday), says there is a discrepancy between the desire of the business to increase market share and the short-term CIO priority of improving IT services.
It says 63 per cent of UK businesses expect to increase their market share in 2007, compared with 27 per cent last year, while CIOs focus on IT services quality, governance and alignment.
Gartner analyst Dave Aron, co-author of the report, says that if steps are not taken to heal the rift, businesses will not meet their objectives, and CIOs could lose their jobs or be assigned less exciting tasks.
‘Only companies with CIOs who bridge this gap will succeed. They can do so through superior technology, building agility into the technology and fostering innovation,’ said Aron.
‘It is challenging but possible, and requires CIOs to really understand their business model and where the sources of competitive advantages are.’
Rorie Devine, chief technology officer of online gambling firm Betfair, says expectations in IT are increasing, but that technology leaders should regard this as a good thing.
‘Like all relationships, expectations have to be carefully managed to avoid over-promising and under-delivering,’ said Devine.
‘It is critical that the CIO is trusted by the other senior company executives, otherwise there is room for doubt to creep in when resource constraints preclude the delivery of everything on a wish list,’ he said.
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