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CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) released a new global report, ‘The Future Role of the CIO’, which reveals the extent to which cloud computing has enabled Malaysian CIOs to spend more time on business strategy and innovation.
Of the Malaysian CIOs who were surveyed for the report, 57% agreed that cloud computing has a significant impact on their role and 53% of them believe that cloud computing has enabled them to spend more time on business strategy and innovation. It is those CIOs who are already embracing cloud that report they have more time to spend on innovation and strategy (100%) compared to just 30% of the non-cloud adopters. More than half (53%) of the CIOs surveyed see their role as a gateway to other roles, demonstrating the positive impact cloud is having on the role of technology. The CIOs feel more enabled to focus on strategy and business services than focus solely on technology.
The ‘Future Role of the CIO’ report has also uncovered that to remain effective in this dynamic cloud environment, CIOs recognise that they need new skills with 63% of the CIOs agreeing with this statement. The skills required range from regulatory and compliance, understanding risk, negotiation and sales skills and commercial procurement skills. Interestingly, 71% of those CIOs who have adopted cloud computing felt that commercial procurement skills were vital, compared to 58% of non-cloud adopting CIOs. This suggests that the purchasing of external cloud services is driving CIOs to acquire more business centric skills rather than to remain a pure technologist.
“We already know that cloud computing is ‘revolutionary’ in terms of what it can do for business, but it is also breeding a new type of technology leader, one that clearly understands what adopting cloud computing can do for the organisation, and one who believes that cloud can empower them to become a more complete technology leader of tomorrow,” said Victor Cheng, Vice President, Asia South, CA Technologies.
This new savvy breed of technology leader is working in a supportive environment compared to those non-cloud adopting CIOs. 60% of non-cloud adopting CIOs stated that the CIO is perceived as running a support function by their management team compared to just 40% of cloud adopters. Further 100% of cloud adopters say that IT is fundamental or very strategically important to the organisation compared to just 50% of those who have not adopted cloud. This indicates that organisations where the CIO has adopted cloud computing view their CIO as much more than a technology leader – a leader with broader skills and knowledge to contribute to the business.
The board’s understanding of IT clearly impacts the perception of how IT is utilised within organisations. 60% of CIOs also said that their company did use IT to grow the business to the extent that it should. Again, cloud adopting CIOs were more positive about the strategic utilisation of IT with 100% compared to 40% of non-cloud adopting CIOs saying IT was used to grow the business.
Perceptions are changing since 40% of CIOs report that the C-level management team sees the role of the CIO as becoming increasingly more important within the organisation which suggests that the board’s view of the CIO is already changing.
“This research finds that cloud computing is positively impacting the role of today’s CIO and giving rise to a new breed of business savvy technology leaders who embrace new technology and new skills to help them deliver business service innovation. To ignore this trend or what these stakeholders could bring to the leadership of an organization will hinder business competitiveness and growth. The boards should seriously consider embracing cloud computing to realize these benefits,” said Victor Cheng, Vice President, Asia South, CA Technologies.
