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Foreword |
Enterprises face a challenging economic environment in 2009. They expect IT to contribute by delivering results in an uncertain economy while reducing enterprise and IT costs. To do this, CIOs need to be decisive and resourceful in building an effective enterprise that can meet current and future challenges.
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In 2009, executives face challenging global economic conditions that have not existed for more than 50 years. Leading enterprises recognize the seriousness of economic conditions, but they are not paralyzed by them. Their leaders have confidence in their ability to use IT to achieve results.
Effectiveness gains importance in uncertain times. Defined as the ability to achieve financial and strategic plans, effectiveness gives enterprises the flexibility to meet challenge with change. This report addresses the question, How will CIOs create effectiveness to meet economic and enterprise challenges?
Meeting the Challenge: The 2009 CIO Agenda was written by Mark McDonald (group vice president) in collaboration with Jacques Begin (senior writer) and Susan Fortino (content production director).
We would like to thank the many organizations and individuals that generously contributed their insights and experiences to the research, including:
- The 1,526 CIOs who responded to this year’s CIO survey, representing more than $138 billion in corporate and public sector IT spending.
- The contributors to our interviews and case studies: Andrea Pereira, Avon (Brazil); Joe Zucchero, CARQUEST (U.S.); Rebecca Jacoby, Cisco (U.S.); Garry Whatley, Corporate Express (Australia); Wolfgang Gaertner, Deutsche Bank (Germany); Massimo Lo Campo, Elica (Italy); Steven Jennings and Craig Bernard, Harris County, Texas (U.S.); John Johnson and Tom Birch, Intel (U.S.); Scott Studham, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (U.S.); Paul Alexander, Pinellas County, Florida (U.S.); Gustavo Pérez Salinas, Sigma Alimentos (Mexico); Robert Beach, Seminole County, Florida (U.S.); Tom Coleman, Sloan Valve (U.S.); Otto Doll, State of South Dakota (U.S.); Lars Holten, Statkraft (Norway); Shuzo Sumi and Tsukasa Makino, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance (Japan); Magnus Holmqvist, Volvo (Sweden); and Ben Wishart, Whitbread (U.K.).
- Other members of the Gartner CIO research team.
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Executive summary |
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The challenges posed by uncertain and volatile economic conditions are changing enterprise plans and strategies. Enterprises are responding in different ways, based on their confidence in achieving results.
Economic conditions challenge enterprise plans and strategies. As enterprises face continued economic volatility and uncertainty, their confidence in the future also becomes challenged. Two fundamental questions face executives in 2009:
- In an uncertain economy, where should the enterprise focus its attention and resources?
- Beyond cutting costs, what are the enterprise goals in a volatile market?
Business expectations of IT call for the CIO to play a role in responding to these questions. The CIO faces the challenge of delivering improvements needed to raise enterprise effectiveness while managing IT resources and performance. Success requires the CIO to take decisive action and to be resourceful across operations in delivering results.
Business expectations for IT focus on improving current operations and performance
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“Raising enterprise effectiveness is the recipe for responding to economic volatility and uncertainty.”
2009 Gartner CIO survey
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Effectiveness meets enterprise challenges
An effective enterprise has the confidence to change in challenging times. In today’s environment of cost containment, CIOs can cut costs or reduce the company’s cost structure. Leading CIOs are changing their cost structures and using IT differently in order to achieve and sustain results. Raising effectiveness requires changing the enterprise and IT by building on the four pillars that support the enterprise’s ability to achieve results.
Enterprise effectiveness comes from a combination of factors
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“Only 17% of CIOs report that their enterprise is more effective than IT.”
2009 Gartner CIO survey
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Raising effectiveness changes IT and the enterprise
CIOs contribute to enterprise effectiveness by raising IT effectiveness; therefore, they must concentrate on the drivers of IT effectiveness. True leaders use these drivers as the basis for transforming IT operations and management to achieve new levels of performance.
CIOs build effective IT through transforming resources and management practices
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“35% of CIOs report to the CEO; 28% report to the CFO.”
2009 Gartner CIO survey
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CIOs must be decisive and resourceful in 2009
Meeting the challenges of 2009 requires CIOs to lead their organization and enterprise through decisions that have no simple answers. CIOs need to lead and have the foresight to look at IT in new ways. They will demonstrate this leadership through the following imperatives:
- Be decisive in setting priorities on actions that raise enterprise effectiveness, with a focus on improving business process, using business intelligence to raise visibility and enhancing workforce effectiveness.
- Do the first things faster, as changing economic conditions render a large project irrelevant. CIOs need to add schedule to their prioritization process and recognize that other important priorities can wait. They need to place greater emphasis on the schedule (when) rather than the priorities (why).
- Be resourceful in restructuring IT to raise its productivity and agility, because the business will not reduce its demand for IT just because you have fewer resources.
- Modernize the technical infrastructure, as new technologies offer lower cost, use less energy, deliver better performance and provide greater capacity; the business will need all of these in the immediate future.
These imperatives form the basis for the CIO agenda and its focus on making the enterprise more effective. Every CIO will start at a different place, facing unique challenges and setting their own agenda to marshal the resources needed to make the right decisions and deliver results across the enterprise.
CIOs will make the decisions that shape IT resources and the results they create
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“The environment is the toughest for people of my generation. It’s the toughest environment we have ever seen.”
Jeffrey Immelt CEO General Electric
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