Gartner Research

What CIOs Need to Know About Leading IT in a Midsize Enterprise

Published: 29 April 2022

Summary

Many CIOs with whom we speak don’t realize that their company is classified as a midsize organization. However, there are two paramount challenges that CIOs in midsize enterprises must understand to optimize IT resources.

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Overview

Key Findings
  • In terms of technology, midsize enterprises need most of the capabilities a large enterprise needs, just at a lesser scale.

  • Vendor solutions targeting the midmarket are often not cost-effective or sized properly for the scale of midsize enterprises.

  • The request to reduce costs during the COVID-19 pandemic has made many CIOs realize that rightsizing their IT portfolio is long overdue.

Recommendations

CIOs in midsize enterprises that want to improve economies of scale should:

  • Rightsize the IT portfolio by investing in “good enough” technologies that support nondifferentiating processes and services. Avoid premium and expensive options that include superfluous capabilities.

  • Avoid overprovisioning by monitoring and

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Analysts:

James Browning

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