Chief information officers (CIOs) in Asia, seemingly untroubled by the sub-prime crisis that is sweeping the US and Europe, are expecting strong IT budget growth in 2008 and have future-oriented technology priorities unconstrained by the legacy IT infrastructure burdening CIOs in the West, according to a worldwide survey of 1,500 CIOs by Gartner Executive Programs (EXP).
Worldwide IT budgets are expected to increase by an average of 3.3 percent in 2008, but growth in Asia is significantly higher, with IT budgets increasing by an average 8.3 percent around the region.
Gartner EXP vice president and research director Andrew Rowsell-Jones said the focus on growth in Asia is reflected in different technology priorities and the impact of economic, social and other mega trends.
“Legacy applications don’t appear on the CIO’s agenda in Asia,” said Mr Rowsell-Jones. “Here, the focus is on building out IT infrastructure, rolling out new applications and finding the people and processes to make it all work. IT budget growth is back – and almost at dotcom era levels.”
According to the Gartner EXP survey, inflation (rising costs) tops the list of economic and social concerns in Asia, with government regulation coming in second, but these rankings are reversed in the global results. Similarly, the impact of exchange rates is of more concern in Asia, replaced in the worldwide survey results with increasing shareholder demands. Environmental concerns come in slightly lower in Asia, ranked number 10 in Asia but coming in 9th worldwide.
Staffing and skills concerns are a universal theme amongst CIOs.
"Everyone is suffering from resource problems," said Mr Rowsell-Jones.
"Only 27 percent of CIOs worldwide believe that they have the right number of skilled people to meet business needs and the problem is slightly more acute in Asia. That is impacting both IT performance and IT's support for enterprise strategies.”
The business and technology priorities of CIOs in Asia are strongly aligned with their global counterparts, with a number of notable differences. Security technologies are the second-highest technology priority for CIOs in Asia, but legacy applications don’t appear on the list.
“Asian organizations are early in the adoption cycle for security,” said Mr Rowsell-Jones.
“In recent years, security has slipped down the list of CIO priorities in North America and Europe as it becomes operationalized as part of normal business processes. But in Asia, building security into new infrastructure is still a top focus.”
Eighty-five percent of CIOs see significant change coming over the next three years as they look to meet rising business expectations for IT to make the difference in their enterprise strategy.
"The message is consistent across the survey; business leaders expect IT to make the difference rather than deliver generic IT solutions," Mr Rowsell-Jones said.
"IT difference is the reason customers use when they choose a company's products and services," said Mr Rowsell-Jones.
"Making the difference involves taking on additional technical risk and cost, a departure from past CIO strategies that concentrated on managing these factors. CIOs will need to become more tolerant of risk and innovation and flexible to meet changing market and customer demands. That is a tall order requiring CIOs to think differently about their role in 2008 and beyond."
Asian CIOs are in a strong position to lead in making the difference. CIO tenure has stabilized at an average of four-and-a-half years, slightly longer than their global counterparts, and 43 percent report to the CEO. In addition, 64 percent of Asian CIOs report having responsibilities outside of traditional IT, reflecting their enhanced business leadership position. The most common additional responsibility is related to business process improvement.
The Gartner EXP report Making the Difference: The 2008 CIO Agenda encompasses more than USD132 billion dollars of IT spending and the insights from more than 1,450 enterprises across 33 countries and 23 industries globally. The survey included 121 CIOs from 11 countries in Asia (excluding Australia or Japan).
Gartner will be presenting these findings along with others at the Gartner EXP 2008 CIO Agenda survey at the Gartner Asia CIO Summit in Singapore from 21-22 February 2008. |
