Tech spending outside IT departments creates opportunities, but opens door to potential security and consumer trust risks, world’s largest technology leadership survey finds
These risks are uncovered at a time when cyber security reaches an all-time high as a board priority (56% vs. 49% last year).
Almost two-thirds (63%) of organizations now allow technology to be
managed outside the IT department, a shift that brings with it both
significant business advantages and increased privacy and security
risks, reveals the 2019
Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190612005509/en/
When IT spending is managed away from the direct control of the chief
information officer, companies are twice as likely to have multiple
security areas exposed and are more likely to become victims of a major
cyber-attack.
The largest technology leadership survey in the world, analyzing
responses from organizations with a combined technology spend of over
$250 billion, reveals that for those organizations where the IT team is
formally involved in decision-making around business-led IT, business
advantages include improving time to market new products (52% more
likely to be “significantly better than their competitors”) and employee
experience (38% more likely to be “significantly better than their
competitors”).
However, 4 in 10 (43%) companies are not formally involving IT in those
business-led IT decisions. These organizations are twice as likely to
have multiple security areas exposed than those who consult IT2,
23% less likely to be “very or extremely effective” at building customer
trust with technology, and 9% more likely to have been targeted by a
major cyber-attack in the last two years. These risks are uncovered at a
time when cyber security reaches an all-time high as a board priority
(56% vs. 49% last year).
The huge opportunities to capitalize on the value of business-led IT,
but also manage its risks, come at a time of significant change for the
business, the CIO, and the IT department, as the survey reveals:
-
Fewer CIOs sit on the board – although the influence of the CIO
remains intact (66% this year view the role as gaining influence
compared to 65% in 2018), fewer CIOs now sit on the board – dropping
from 71% to 58% in just two years. -
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are driving huge change
– as the IT department is being tasked by its board to use
AI/automation to improve efficiencies (up 17% this year as a board
priority), this is leading CIOs to expect that up to 1 in 5 jobs will
be replaced by AI/automation within 5 years. However, 69% of CIOs
believe that new jobs will compensate for job losses to AI/automation. -
Skills shortages – technology leaders are struggling to find
the right talent with skills shortages at their highest level since
2008. The three most-scarce skills are big data/analytics (44%),
cybersecurity (39%) and AI (39%).
“Today’s CIO is more collaborative and aligned with the rest of the
business than ever before,” said Anna
Frazzetto, Chief Digital Technology Officer & President, Technology
Solutions, Harvey Nash Inc. “IT budgets are increasing, companies are
getting more creative and they’re investing in innovation. With digital
now a part of every piece of the business, the CIO is the key influencer
at driving the direction of the IT roadmap.”
Steve
Bates, Global Leader, CIO Advisory Center of Excellence, KPMG
International, said, “There is no longer business strategy and
technology strategy, it’s simply strategy with technology driving it.
This research clearly shows that organizations putting technology in the
hands of value-creators and connecting the front, middle and back office
are winning in the market. The future of IT is a customer obsessed, well
governed, connected enterprise.”
“Companies are having the hardest time in more than a decade finding the
technology talent they need,” said Sean
Gilligan, President, Technology Recruitment, North America, Harvey
Nash Inc. “The need for data analysis remains the number one concern,
demand increases for AI and cyber security skills, and requests for
skills like cloud and mobile development remain constant. One of the
growing trends we are now seeing is the client requesting professionals
who have more of a hybrid of skills -someone with expertise in multiple
cloud platforms, a software engineer experienced in DevOps, or a front
end developer who can do mobile. Having these blended capabilities is a
major asset for companies of all sizes, but it is rare.”
Digital leaders perform better
Digital leaders, which are organizations that consider themselves “very
effective” or “extremely effective” at using digital technologies to
advance their business strategies, performed better than their
competitors on every aspect surveyed:
-
These aspects included time to market (53% vs 34% for the rest),
customer experience (65% vs 49%), revenue growth (55% vs 43%) and
profitability in the last year (50% vs 37%). -
Digital leaders are also more likely to introduce major new changes to
products and services in the next three years (55% vs 39% for the
rest), and focus on making money - 76% of CEOs in digital leader
organizations want their technology projects to “make” rather than
“save money,” compared to 58% for the rest.
Gender diversity initiatives are failing big
tech
-
74% of IT leaders feel their diversity and inclusion initiatives
within their teams are at most moderately successful. There has been
only minimal growth in the number of women on tech teams, 22% this
year compared to 21% last year, and no change in the percentage of
female technology leaders at 12%.
First signs of quantum computing
-
Although quantum computing3 is at such an early stage, 4%
(107 global organizations) have implemented quantum computing to at
least some degree – with big pharmaceuticals, financial services and
energy organizations making bets in this area. -
One-fifth (22%) of organizations implementing quantum computing were
based in the United Kingdom, followed by 19% in the United States, and
7% for both Australia and the Republic of Ireland.
IT leaders reporting budget increases – highest
for 15 years
-
More technology leaders reported increases in IT budgets under their
control than at any time in the last 15 years. -
The jump in those reporting increases (from 49% to 55%) is the largest
seen, with the one exception of 2010, when organizations were still
clawing their way out of the global recession. -
For technology projects where the CEO prefers to “save money” almost
half (45%) of respondents report budget increases compared to just 38%
last year, suggesting many CIOs are investing to save, for instance
through automation.
About the Survey
In its 21st year, the 2019 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey is the
largest IT leadership survey in the world in terms of number of
respondents. The survey of 3,645 CIOs and technology leaders was
conducted between December 13, 2018 and April 4, 2019, across 108
countries.
For more information about the survey and to request a full copy of the
results, please visit www.hnkpmgciosurvey.com
or email [email protected].
Follow the conversation on Twitter at #hnkpmgciosurvey.
About Harvey Nash Inc.
Harvey Nash Inc. is the North American division of the Harvey Nash
Group, a global professional recruitment firm and IT outsourcing service
provider. Harvey Nash has helped over half the world’s leading companies
recruit, source and manage the highly skilled talent they need to
succeed in an increasingly competitive, global and technology driven
world. With 2,500 employees in 36 locations across Europe, Asia and
North America, Harvey Nash has the reach and resources of a global
organization, and it fosters a culture of innovation and agility that
empowers all employees across the world to respond to constantly
changing client needs. Harvey Nash works with clients, both big and
small, to deliver a portfolio of services: IT recruitment, IT
outsourcing/offshoring and executive search.
To learn more, please visit www.harveynashusa.com.
Follow us: www.twitter.com/harveynashusa
and www.facebook.com/harveynashusa.
About KPMG LLP
KPMG is one of the world’s leading professional services firms,
providing innovative business solutions and audit, tax, and advisory
services to many of the world’s largest and most prestigious
organizations.
KPMG is widely recognized for being a great place to work and build a
career. Our people share a sense of purpose in the work we do, and a
strong commitment to community service, inclusion and diversity, and
eradicating childhood illiteracy.
KPMG LLP is the independent U.S. member firm of KPMG International
Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International’s independent
member firms have 207,000 professionals working in 153 countries and
territories. Learn more at www.kpmg.com/us.
1 Initially referred to as ‘shadow IT’, business-led IT
refers to the inexorable rise of technology expenditure controlled
outside of the IT department.
2 16% of organisations that don’t formally involve IT in
business-led IT decisions versus 7% for those that do.
3 Quantum computing is the use of quantum-mechanical
phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computation.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190612005509/en/