Executives don't think CIOs help accelerate business progress, says Forrester report

Forrester research suggests a lack of respect for the work of IT from other departments

Key business leaders don't believe their CIO or IT department accelerate the success of their departments, a new report by Forrester Research suggests.

Titled 'Top Technologies For Your BT [business technology] Agend a,' the report is based on a survey of over 3,500 executives from across a number of business departments. It doesn't make pleasant reading for CIOs, with large swathes telling Forrester that their IT department hinders business success more than accelerates it.

Customer service professionals were the most dismissive of the CIO, with 79 per cent suggesting that the IT department doesn't play a role in improving their part of the business, while 78 per cent of those in product and engineering expressed the same view.

Sales executives tended to agree, with 74 per cent suggesting IT didn't play a role in accelerating their success. R&D isn't far behind, with 69 per cent of respondents working in that field believing IT is more of a hindrance than an enabler.

Marketing was somewhat more positive about the role of IT within the business, but still the majority - 51 per cent - believe that the CIO doesn't help accelerate their success.

The report suggests a number of ways in which the CIO can alter this perception, including transforming the IT department through the use of new customer experience skills, the sort departments like sales and marketing use when dealing with outside agencies.

"Your business leaders have grown accustomed to working with digital agencies and consultancies to build new mobile applications, websites, and loyalty programmes. To win their trust, you need to mirror many of the skills and behaviours of these firms," the report suggests.

"Build an essential skill set around customer experience, and arm your delivery teams with new techniques and frameworks to define customer journeys and translate them into the specific projects that your teams deliver to win, serve, and retain customers," it said.

The report also suggests that the CIO should emphasise the role technology plays in the success of business in order to dispel negative perceptions.

It also argues that the CIO and IT are the only personnel within the business equipped to make decisions about what solutions should be used. Because anyone else, the report argues, might find it difficult to distinguish between different vendor offerings.