63% of European business leaders divulged that they are ‘far from ready’ for a digital analytics transformation, in research fronted by leading UK technology firm Ricoh.
The Ricoh poll, which collated the views of 735 senior business and IT decision makers, also revealed that 83 per cent of leaders believe their Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are not empowered to implement critical growth activities.
The title of CIO in business applies to the senior executive for information technology and computer systems, overseeing all aspects of technical strategy including information accessibility and integrated systems management. However, the research has revealed that the majority of business leaders feel their CIO is unable to change essential aspects of their digital analytics strategy, such as customer engagement (87 per cent) and supply chain (86 per cent).
In addition, just 46 per cent of businesses reported that they had a CIO at all.
Ian Winham, himself a CIO at Ricoh Europe PLC, argued that the research proves businesses are “still in the digital analytics dark ages”.
“During a time when much more technology-led change is anticipated, businesses will need to be able to adapt quickly to new client demands, economic conditions and to maintain a competitive advantage,” he said.
“To meet the challenges posed by this change, IT management should no longer be side-lined as a supporting role, instead CIOs must be further empowered to influence business models, client interaction and employee productivity.”
Winham believes that CIOs can deliver the cost savings associated with a more agile working model by applying their technology expertise to change an organization’s traditional, less effective way of working.
“In the longer term, with these strong foundations in place the CIO can focus on the core business areas and successfully lead the organization into a brighter digital analytics future”, he concluded.
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