IBM study bares business focus of Asean CIOs

MANILA, Philippines - Chief information officers (CIOs) in the ASEAN region are more business savvy than their Western counterparts, an IBM study shows.

Sandy Vann, country leader for IBM Global Business Services of IBM Philippines, said in a recent presentation to IT journalists that organizations in the ASEAN region seem to understand that the difference between high-growth and low-growth organizations is how they successfully integrate business and technology.

“Visionary CIOs understand that in order to drive real innovation, (it) will need a very deep involvement with the business. IT is no longer a separate part of the organization,” Vann said.

“ASEAN CIOs understand the requirements themselves, the need to leverage technology in business. So they collaborate, they partner, they use technology reasonably within their organizations to drive growth,” he added.

IBM conducted the first Global Chief Information Officer study between January and April this year to “better understand the challenges and goals of today’s CIOs.” It interviewed more than 2,500 CIOs representing 78 countries and 19 organizations.

Vann said 86 of these interviewees were from the ASEAN region.

One of the key findings of the study, he said, is that the top priority of CIOs is leveraging business intelligence and analytics, or the ability to see patterns in a vast amount of data, to gain competitive advantage and improve decision-making.

Eighty-seven percent of CIOs in the ASEAN, compared to 83 percent of global CIOs, believe that this will drive the organization’s competitiveness.

“There is a whole lot of information that an organization has its fingertips (on),” Vann said. “Almost all CIOs understand the need to extract and understand these data and use that to gain insight, to understand customers and to drive growth.”

Risk management analysis is also very important to CIOs in the ASEAN. The study shows that 76 percent of ASEAN CIOs, compared to 71 percent of global CIOs, are planning to make additional investments in risk management and compliance.

Vann explained that due to the increasing requirement for compliance in the global markets, it has become imperative for organizations to be compliant.

“CIOs all over the world, including the ASEAN, realize that to be compliant and to manage risks over the next few years needs significant investments,” he said.

Because today’s corporate executives have to navigate a complex landscape, 61 percent of ASEAN CIOs (compared to 56 percent of global CIOs) understand that they need to use IT services in the organization.

“Successful CIOs listen to what the customer wants and understand how that translates to changes needed to be implemented across the organization,” Van said. “CIOs need to create value and there will be much greater integration of their infrastructure in the next five years in many business processes.”

Seventy-one percent of ASEAN CIOs are looking at standardizing these processes to reduce cost. Vann said this is part of savvy value creation and relentless cost-cutting across organizations.

The study also shows that the ASEAN CIO is much more valued in the organization, with 84 percent saying that the CIO role is very important in driving innovation and revenue growth to make the organization smarter. On the global level, only 78 percent of respondents say the CIO role is very important.

Technology in this part of the world, therefore, is closely aligned with the business strategy and is already an integral part of the business.

“CIOs in the ASEAN are more business strategists than IT managers,” Vann observed. “IT work has to be done but the CIO is much more focused in creating business value, bringing change, and will continue to do so.  He or she is much more a pragmatist and a cost-cutter, a business leader and a value creator.”