By Christina Johnson, EMEA Staff Writer
How has the digital acceleration, spurred on by the pandemic, influenced the thinking of CIOs worldwide? And how can CIOs and CFOs create a more effective partnership? We conducted a global study of over 600 executives worldwide with Deloitte to find the answers to these questions. Here’s a summary of our findings.
As CIOs have helped lead their organisations through the disruption caused by COVID-19, investing in the technologies that enable faster reflexes and decisive action have become a top priority. And connecting different departments with an overarching technology strategy is essential if you want to coordinate a unified response to market shifts, and focusing on finance is particularly important to CIOs.
Our latest joint research report with Deloitte, ‘A More Effective CIO-CFO Partnership’, found that most CIOs (70%) say the pandemic has accelerated their finance transformation strategies by at least a year.
The research, which is based on a survey of 603 executives worldwide, also found forward-looking tech leaders, who we refer to as ‘Progressive CIOs’, are more likely to see the strategic importance of technology in the current environment.
They have a different mindset to their peers, focusing on transformative business issues, agile execution and the data capabilities that allow organisations to pick up the pace. And firms with Progressive CIOs outperform other organisations in several areas, including employee satisfaction, cybersecurity, customer turnover and revenue.
Our research found a unique set of beliefs and behaviours set Progressive CIOs apart from their peers (see sidebar to the right). And there are three priorities that help put these forward-looking leaders ahead of the rest.
We identified a subset of survey respondents who met the following criteria:
Strongly agree that ‘my role/department is more strategic to the business than it was last year’.
Strongly agree that ‘agile, incremental technology transformation will be critical to the success of my firm’s post-COVID-19 recovery phase’.
Say that their firms have the data capabilities to perform all of the following tasks either competently or well: – Deliver short-term forecasts – Model changes in demand – Provide reliable and accurate data to stakeholders – Implement new technology strategies – Secure sensitive and mission-critical data – Enable self-service access to business users – Identify risk
CIOs are in a unique position to help an organisation meet its strategic goals. But to innovate effectively, technology leaders need to build close partnerships with other leaders across the business.
According to our survey, 49% of all CIOs believe they need to spend less time on purely IT matters and more time making IT a strategic enabler across the business. And 60% agree that ‘our business leaders are too focused on short-term costs of system modernisation to see the long-term value of digital transformation’.
Progressive CIOs say aligning their priorities with those of CFOs and the C-suite is a priority. About 60% describe themselves as collaborative, compared to 44% of all respondents. They work to align their priorities with the broader business strategy and keep all key stakeholders informed, motivated and onboard with the transformation.
“I think being a CIO is really about business alignment,” says Jerzy Janeczko, Senior Vice President and CIO of biopharmaceutical group Ipsen. “It’s about collaboration with key stakeholders and business partners. By doing this, we mitigate a lot of risks: we know what we’re investing in, what our roadmap is, and where we need to invest as a priority.”
When it comes to enterprise finance transformation, misalignment between IT and the finance function can have serious financial implications. Progressive CIOs recognise this. 83% agree that ‘we will miss our growth targets unless the IT and finance functions work more closely’, compared with only 67% of the total sample.
Matt Schwenderman, Deloitte Global Workday Financial Management leader, says: “Today’s most successful IT leaders are working in close alignment with the finance function to drive toward common goals, processes and priorities. While we’re seeing a continued prioritisation of digital technologies as a result of the pandemic, our research highlights that Progressive CIOs recognise that the digital disruption triggering finance transformation will focus leadership on business insights and data analytics.”
In a rapidly changing marketplace, organisations have to continually beat the competition to market – and keep up with shifting expectations to remain relevant. Overall, 45% of CIOs say they need to innovate more quickly, and 43% are under pressure to create greater enterprise agility.
In this environment, digital acceleration is key to success – as long as innovation and change drive strategic business results. One in three Progressive CIOs say ‘time to deliver a defined business goal’ is the most important metric by which they measure the success of new technologies, compared to about one in five of the total population.
To help their organisations move faster – and adapt as plans change – Progressive CIOs are focused on agile, incremental innovation. This approach helps IT teams stay in line with more risk-averse departments, such as finance. It also balances the need to keep the business running smoothly with the demands of modernising core systems.
When it comes to finance transformation in particular, Progressive CIOs believe in the power of the cloud. More than half (54%) are deploying an end-to-end cloud strategy to modernise their enterprise management environment, compared to just 37% of all CIOs. But while Progressive CIOs believe in the value of a unified move to the cloud, they also know they need to take an iterative approach to get there.
Getting to the desired end state requires stakeholders across the organisation to develop a more innovative mindset – and Progressive CIOs want to help other departments wrap their heads around what new technologies can do. Nearly 9 in 10 (88%) say they would like to spend more time educating the organisation, compared to just 69% of the wider sample. A similar portion of Progressive CIOs (90%) also prioritise working with other departments on digital innovation projects, compared to 70% of all respondents.
Predicting the future is no simple task, but the right data capabilities can help organisations better plan for an uncertain future. From how customer demands might evolve to how revenue streams could shift over time, analysing data from across the organisation can help leaders make smarter strategic choices – and plan for multiple possible outcomes.
Developing these capabilities starts with making the right technology investments. And this need is accelerating transformations across sectors. According to our survey, 41% of CIOs say the need to improve decision making by enabling secure, timely access to reliable data is the biggest driver of technology modernisation within their organisations.
For their part, Progressive CIOs prioritise data aggregation and data management. ‘Aggregating enterprise finance data into a single source of truth’ is the top priority for 92%, compared to 72% of the wider sample. Gerard Florian, CIO of ANZ Bank, sets out the value of this approach: “Different parts of the business had different systems, so they were talking at cross-purposes, generating different spreadsheets, and arguing about which data was right. We’re now able to work with a common fact base and collectively see what the cost drivers really are.”
Progressive CIOs also focus on data integrity, as a data-driven culture must be built on trust. An end-to-end cloud strategy that provides unified access to the organisation can provide a single source of truth that allows leaders to access accurate, real-time data at a moment’s notice. And as the speed of the market continues to accelerate, organisations that can make faster, more informed decisions will be better positioned to gain a competitive edge.
Find out more
One of the most encouraging takeaways from this research is that Progressive CIOs don’t rely on having the most advanced technology or the biggest budget. Instead, their approach can be adopted by any tech leader (or, for that matter, any leader in any function) because it is built on a mindset and a considered set of priorities. You can read the full report now: 'A More Effective CIO-CFO Partnership'.
