Business intelligence and analytics top priority for ANZ CIOs

Using business intelligence (BI) and analytics to gain a competitive advantage and improve efficiency is the top priority for ANZ CIOs.

That’s the takeaway message from IBM’s global CIO study, the results of which were revealed at a round table with three prominent Australian CIOs this week.

The study, based on 3000 CIO interviews, revealed that for the first time CEOs and CIOs are strategically aligned in their thinking around future challenges and complexity.

“Today’s CEOs recognise and understand that technology is front and centre in driving organisational change and taking the business forward,” said Matt English, Partner, IBM Global Business Services.

“CIOs have a key role to play in reducing complexity and helping the CEO shape change and drive business innovation to achieve competitive advantage. The findings demonstrate a common focus over the next five years, and prioritises the IT agenda and defines how real value can be added by the CIO and IT overall,” English said.

One hundred and eighty one ANZ (Australian and New Zealand) CIOs were interviewed for the study.

According to one participant, Diane Fernley-Jones CIO at Leighton Contractors, the study was particularly comprehensive.

“It was a commitment to take part, and involved one and a half hours of interview time,” Fernley-Jones said.

The changing role of the CIO

As the role of the CIO transforms, so does the perception of the role within the business. The study indicates four distinct groupings/roles of the CIO, which IBM has termed the ‘CIO Mandates’.

The four roles are:

• Leverage - streamline operations and increase organisational effectiveness;
• Expand - refine business processes and enhance collaboration;
• Transform - change the industry value chain through improved relationships; and
• Pioneer - radically innovate products, markets and business models.

Leverage came out as the top mandate for Australian and New Zealand CIOs, and was 5% greater than CIOs from the US and Europe. The three CIOs present agreed, with Greg Palmer, CIO Boral, commenting that, “We just have to crank the handle harder with what we have got already and then we can think about expanding.”

Fernley-Jones said, “We are far happier working in the leverage area first and, when we get that right, we can think about expanding. We have to deliver the IT basics first before we can sit at the table and talk about business.”

Both Boral and Leighton Contractors are in the business of construction and building, and have many remote locations, with safety being of paramount concern for both enterprises. Both use technology to improve safety and communications about safety.

Tony Kesby, CIO, Vida Advantage, said, “The alignment of the CIO and CEO has been coming for a long time. The CIO is just as much a business person as an IT person.”

Kesby sits on the board of executives of Veda Advantage and said, “It is very much a business discussion when they meet.”

Veda Advantage has passed through the leverage mandate, having being forced to deal with that as a result of the GFC. It is now in transform mode and in the process of growing the business.

The study also found that cloud computing is on the agenda for CIOs: 60% of ANZ CIOs view cloud computing as strategic, with plans to implement it in the next five years. This is compared to the merely 39% that felt the same way in 2009.

Other areas on the CIO radar are collaboration, social media, self-serve portals and mobility.