On Wednesday 12th September we showcased the results of the 2018 Harvey Nash / KPMG CIO Survey, with over 100 CIOs and IT Leaders in attendance; it was a great turnout for the surveys' 20th birthday.
Held at The Refinery in Manchester, Harvey Nash opened the evening with a speech from Jonathan Potter followed by Natalie Whittlesey (Harvey Nash) and Peter Ironside's (KPMG) co-presentation of the surveys' findings.
Natalie Whittlesey asked; 'Why are we calling it the transformational CIO?' The answer to which was that; 'The role itself is transforming, we now have CDOs, CDOs, Chief Innovation Officers and many more variations of a CIO. A CIO now has the ability to transform both business and industry, take the evolution of Fintech for example.'
Now that the event has concluded, what key things can we take away from last night?
- IT Investment is growing - This year, more and more IT leaders are enjoying budget increases, at 49% this is the highest increase we've seen since we started reporting. Whilst investment in both digital and cloud are seen as the driving force behind this increase, data privacy and security have also shown trends of increased investment. Resultantly, we have seen you report a 47% increase in headcount requirements, with only 13% reporting headcount decreases, which, leads us onto the next salient topic...
- The Resourcing Challenge - With 65% of people reporting a tech skills shortage we are still seeing the use of contractors/off shore/outsource and consultancies to plug the skills gap. However, we're also seeing an increase in the use of automation to replace the need for additional headcount
- 'Shadow IT' is growing - It's not all doom and gloom as 'shadow' IT steps out of the shadows, 44% of people say that 10% of their IT budget is now held by the rest of the business, but this is something that CIOs are now more comfortable with and adjusting their influence accordingly
- 'Trust', the new battleground - Improving Cyber Security is the priority that has increased in concern by the largest amount. This reflects the trends of post GDPR where concerns have increased from both the board and CIO around how customer data is handled - data breaches are a high priority.
- Digital strategies are beginning to be effective - We have now moved on from deeming digital as simply a buzz word toward something that board's now recognises as a key priority. Despite this, the true meaning of what digital is, would still seem to be miss understood, however it is clear, organisations with a CDO are reaping better rewards.
- 'Digital leaders' are leading the way in - Their focus on the customer and the reach of their digital strategy in uniting IT and the business.
Conclusively, Natalie Whittlesey stated 'A CIO is now person who covers numerous roles from digital to data to security', 'if you don't keep ahead of trends then you could lose ground'.
As we move forward, CIOs are adapting to understand the importance of influence as an alternative to control with a strong focus on the customer.
Albert Ellis, Harvey Nash CEO, then took us into the next part of the evening, the panel debate.
Our Panel:
John Whitlow - CIO, Salford University
Alison Stock - IT Director, Riverside Group
Dave Roberts - CIO, Radius Payments Solutions
William Hewish - CIO, United Utilities
Key quotes and questions from the night
Albert: 'Digital is disrupting the world right now, while politics is the arena that the disruption is most visible it is disrupting all industries. What is really happening here, is it transforming for the good?'
John: 'It's very subjective, in the University we've introduced the concept of 'customer' while there has been rhetoric around it for a while it hadn't been able to change the service. Customer experience is something that we need to introduce but it hasn't been that disruptive yet for us'.
Alison: 'Riverside is a people business so people may ask, why do they need to invest in IT?... it's all about customer experience even with the changes we won't lost that people element. The role of the CIO is changing but it has always been about the people. Business and IT - it's a good partnership.'
Question: 'Digital strategy is not new so why does it matter?'
John: 'There has been a fundamental change in society and legislation; these changes are something that we don't fully understand yet. Society is changing and driving forward a change in customer expectations; this results in a need for businesses to change in a different way.'
Allison: 'It's evolved to be understood as a business strategy, gone are the days that you need a 'techie' strategy.'
Question: 'Do you think that the speed of digital transformation means that we'll alienate large groups of our society such as the elderly and homeless? How are you addressing this as CIOs in thinking about your end customer?'
William: 'As we cater for all demographics we need to ensure that our services are accessible. We have customers who want to write letters and those who want to use more innovative forms of communication - this is where digital helps us as we might use AI to digitise those letters for example. You can use digital to interact with those customers who still want to use analog.'
Albert: 'Is society then divided for those who want to use different channels?'
Dave: 'Without technology we don't have a business to run so for us it's more of a social issue as opposed to a business issue as we're a B2B business.'
William: 'Automation isn't people losing their jobs, they are simply moving away from mundane back office jobs into more customer facing roles.'
Albert: 'EU exit - is it an issue?'
Dave: 'Our main concern is about our diverse workforce and what that will mean post EU exit. Are we going to be able to keep the talent we have?'
William: 'We're trying to understand whether it has made money more expensive for UK businesses with questions around our access to investment funds. However, our planning has been around the free movement of people.'
For the final part of the evening, our guests then went on to enjoy some networking with food and drinks provided by The Refinery. Thank you to all of those who were able to attend, the room was full until the very end!
We also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in our charity raffle; we were able to raise an amazing £550 for Action for Children. Congratulations to the winner of the raffle, which comprised of items and vouchers kindly donated by a number of businesses in Manchester, Richard Ellis.
