Indian CIOs more progressive than global peers: IBM Study

Some of the key findings of the India point of view of the CIO Study 2009 are:

* 70% of Indian CIOs are integrating business and technology to promote innovation for the entire organization as compared to 47% of global CIOs.

* 64% Indian CIOs proactively push IT as an innovation element compared to 55% of global CIOs.

* 64% of Indian CIOs anticipate standardized and low-cost business processes to be a reality within their organization. Repeatability and simplicity seem to be more important than the unique character of the process itself. Only 53% global CIOs share this view.

* Three-fourth (76%) of both global as well as Indian CIOs foresee a strongly centralized infrastructure over the next five years.

* Over 70% Indian CIOs expect to explore newer channels for end-customer interactions and anticipate greater levels of integration and transparency with customers in the next five years. Global responses rank between 56-64%.

* One key area where Global CIOs rank ahead of Indian CIOs is around proactively crafting data into actionable information. However,this is also an area which both global and Indian CIOs have ranked as No 1 for their visionary plans for future.

* 56% of Indian CIOs decide on business strategy as a member of the senior management team. Globally,this number is only 33%.

The starkest contrast between what Global and Indian CIOs pointed out among their top most challenges for future was: Budgets. Clearly,IT budgets aren’t something that is bothering Indian CIOs as much as their global peers as only 28% of Indian CIOs saw this as a challenge as compared to 45 pct of their global peers.

Commenting on the findings of this study,Nipun Mehrotra,Vice President,IBM Asia Pacific said,“The India findings of IBM CIO Study 2009 are an indication of Indian CIOs’ aspirations to lead their organizations into the league of the most successful companies worldwide.”

“Given the fact that most of the Indian CIOs are not tied to legacy IT infrastructure,they find it easier to take bold actions that are required for organizations to become successful,” he added.

Sharing his views on innovation being highlighted strongly in the India point of view of the Study,Dr. Guruduth Banavar,Chief Technologist,IBM India/South Asia said,“Today,CIOs in India are expected to lead strategic changes through innovative use of business insights gathered by information technology to demonstrate improved business results.”

The study also pointed out the key visionary plans for the future. According to Indian CIOs interviewed as part of this study,the top three priority areas being highlighted for the future were: business intelligence & analytics,risk mitigation & governance and virtualisation

Due to increasing adoption of online business,the traditional way of doing business is undergoing sea change in India. Online business brings with it risk related to data security and keeping pace with tech advancements. And this gets represented in the survey,where security factors rank high as the challenge.