COVID-19 hit all countries terribly, making places empty due to lockdown, and people strained for their lives, jobs, and future. But at the same time, the pandemic has opened a strangely ideal door for many CIOs to save their enterprises. CIOs and their digital business initiatives are now the driving force behind any growth, even the smallest, as the entire enterprise’s path to the future runs through IT.
The relationship between CIOs and their peers or interiors has never been stronger, giving them the needed leverage they need for their next big challenge, digital business acceleration. Years ago, many CIOs were trying to convince senior business leaders to stake big steps to gain the full advantage of technology. And now, the call has been answered, but in a way no one could ever expect. But after all, roadblocks have been removed, and the majority of boards are prioritizing these digital business initiatives.
According to Gartner CIO Agenda Report:
69% of boards report accelerating digital business initiatives in response to COVID-19.
What lessons can be learned from this survey results? Below is a compilation of case studies, expert analysis, and insights that allow CIOs to compare priorities and actions with global peers and glimpse what the future may hold.
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CIOs survey about digital business scale
Shifts in Funding Due to COVID-19
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, work from homes, and the policy of social distance has increased the relationship as well as the position of CIOs. According to the survey, most CIOs’ relationship with the business is stronger than ever this year.
Digital Innovation is the means to help businesses thrive in a meaningful time. As expected, the spending is set to increase across the board for most IT organizations in 2021.
2% average increase is expected in IT budgets globally in 2021.
With top performers who have got a jump on it in 2020, they, therefore, will have the chance to increase their lead over competitors. Organizations that have already increased their funding of digital innovation are 2.7 times more likely to be top performers than trailing performers.
How should CIOs respond?
- Optimize investments by reevaluating recent business cases
- Reallocate funding to digital innovation
Supply chains fragility
COVID-19 has shown the fragility of supply chains, with enterprises suffering severe disruptions during the initial lockdown. The impacts have still slowly been resolved and have not yet been completed.
More than half of CIOs (51%) reported a decrease in delivery speeds for supply, which are basic IT equipment such as PCs and servers, compared with only 21% believed that there was a speed increase. In terms of supplier reliability, 18% reported a decline as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, CIOs expected the situation to reverse, with 51% foreseeing an increase in speed.
How should CIOs respond?
- Use digital technology to increase supply chain resilience
- Use crowdsourcing to expand the horizons of supply chain decision-makers
Demand for new digital products or services during the pandemic
Many changes made in response to COVID-19 will continue to accelerate because not only do they help businesses cope with the recent situation (with COVID predicted to last until 2022), but they also make business sense. For example, people have to shift their activity online due to the lockdown, which increases the demand for new digital products and services as well as self-service use. This shift is set to increase in 2021.
Specifically, 76% of CIOs report increased demand for new digital products or services, while 83% expected this demand to increase further in 2021.
As a matter of fact, top performers have gone all-in, developing the capabilities to use digital to create deeper relationships with customers, and it’s paying off. As expected, organizations that increase their use of digital channels have the tendency to reach customers 3.5 times higher and are more likely to be top performers than trailing performers.
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How should CIOs respond?
- Invest in customer-facing technologies.
- Play a role in environmental and social sustainability
IT tools and applications enhancement
Many CIOs used this crisis as an opportunity to increase IT tools and applications and modernize the company’s legacy and infrastructure. With their relationship being strengthened and their voice being heard more than ever, they were able to do things that are normally difficult, such as conducting training, increasing the IT workforce, and changing the IT reporting lines to roll up to a more senior executive.
70% of CIOs deepened their knowledge of specific business processes to advise the business. The impact of these moves is clear: The better CIOs perform for the business, the more the business asks of them.
Most people believe that their business is making higher-value, more strategic requests, and thus, expect trends like these to continue in 2021.
How should CIOs respond?
- Harness gains in culture within the IT organization to sustain momentum
About CMC Global
Founded from nearly 3 decades of ICT experience of CMC Corp, CMC Global’s mission is to provide competent software engineers, ICT solutions, and services for overseas markets. At present, CMC Global is employing nearly 1000 staff, together with a member company in Japan and other offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.
With the aim of bringing CMC’s high-tech products and services internationally, CMC Global plans to open more subsidiaries in some Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, etc.
