More so than anywhere else, CIOs in Nordic regions believe that their organizations rank digital business and digital transformation as their number one objective.
And it’s a winning view. Twenty-six percent of CIOs at top-performing organizations in other regions also believe digital transformation is their business’s main priority. And it’s seen as the key focus by CIOs at 17% of organisations classed as “typical performers”. But that’s compared with a whopping 42% of CIOs at Nordic companies.
Winning businesses focus on digital
Achieving growth and market share was also seen as a key business priority by CIOs across the board – 23% in the Nordics, 21% for top performers and 27% at typical performers. Notably, those organizations that were classed as trailing furthest behind had the greatest proportion of CIOs that believed their business was focused on growth and market share (28%) and the lowest proportion that thought it was digital business and transformation (7%).
So your business can probably improve its performance by focusing on digital business and digital transformation. Yes, it’s important to also focus on growth and market share, but perhaps that’s a natural by-product of focusing on digital. And what if prioritizing growth and market share is actually not necessarily helpful in achieving it?
Winning CIOs focus on business
CIOs at top-performing organizations in other regions are targeted as much on business performance as IT performance – it’s a 50/50 split. In both the Nordics and at typical performers elsewhere, CIOs’ targeting is still skewed towards IT performance, at 56% and 57% respectively.
So that all suggests it’s a good thing for people with IT and digital transformation knowledge to be the ones focused on achieving business growth. And you might wonder whether those organizations trailing furthest behind have business leaders – who, don’t forget, are primarily focused on growth and market share – also making strategic decisions for their CIOs, only 34% of whom are targeted on business performance.
So the recipe for maximum success would appear to be an overall organizational focus on digital business and transformation, with a CIO-focus on business growth and market share.
Indeed, organizations with advanced digital transformation programmes have IT leaders that are over six times more likely to be involved in helping develop overall business strategy than at those running legacy hardware (60% versus 9%).
Look forward to a bright future with a cloud outlook
CIOs at some of the most successful organizations have embraced cloud, taking advantage of its scalability, collaboration and major cost benefits. Indeed, research shows that CIOs at top-performing organizations are the most likely to recruit for the latest cloud ecosystem roles, with 49% having created cloud architect roles, for example. CIOs at Nordic organizations are also strongly invested in this, way ahead of typical performers (40% versus 30%), but they still have some way to go.
Also, it’s estimated that, by 2020, 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud, with 41% on public cloud platforms and 42% running on private- and hybrid-clouds.
Cloud wanders freely over both digital and business priorities
The fact is that public cloud technologies deliver fantastic value to the business and also provide strong, easily-implemented technical solutions. They should be a quick win for the business-focused CIO in delivering positive transformation to his or her digitally-inclined organization. So if you’re a CIO in the Nordics, a key strategic activity might well be to evangelise the benefits of cloud technologies to your colleagues.
Improve business performance with Telavox
Look at Telavox, for example. It is a cloud-based private branch exchange (PBX) platform that delivers a comprehensive range of communications features and capabilities. Many of them are simply not possible with on-premises or hosted PBX systems, and Telavox is far more cost-effective too.
With Telavox, it’s possible to transform any mobile device into a business telephone extension, so you can make or receive calls from your office phone from wherever you are. There are also in-built collaboration tools so that you can stay in much closer contact with your colleagues, and access business resources anywhere.
Moreover, there are none of the up-front costs traditionally associated with on-premises PBXs. All you pay is a simple monthly service fee per user, enabling maximum productivity at minimum cost.
So by implementing an effective digital solution you will also support business growth. And cloud technology helps you, as CIO, and your business leaders to achieve your goals.
Photo: #WOCinTech Chat
