Today’s CIOs Continue to Expand Their Reach Deeper Into Core Businesses

Today's CIOs continue to expand their reach deeper into their companies' core businesses, expanding their responsibilities beyond IT and transforming the CIO role into strategic driver, according to global recruiter Harvey Nash USA, which released the results of its second annual CIO Survey last month. "CIOs are evolving into renaissance professionals with a range of multifunctional business skills," said Harvey Nash USA CEO and president Robert J. Miano in a release.

While CIOs say their organizations are becoming better integrated with the business side, only 30 percent indicated that their teams are excellent in this category, according to the online survey, which was sponsored by KPMG and engaged 172 U.S. CIOs (14.6 percent of whom serve in the financial services industry). As a result, 53 percent of respondents cited business alignment as their top priority, making it the No. 1 item on CIOs' agendas. Managing project deadlines ranked second (43 percent), security ranked third (40 percent), and managing staff turnover (35 percent) and effective systems integration (33 percent) ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

The survey also reveals that outsourcing and offshoring strategies are growing in sophistication. According to Harvey Nash, 80 percent of CIOs outsource and 43 percent are going offshore to do it. CIOs report that reasons for outsourcing are expanding beyond cost-cutting to include achieving business imperatives, and improving performance and service levels.