Some two-thirds of businesses in the UK and Ireland place IT strategy as a pillar of their overall corporate business strategy, according to a new survey of leaders.
As a result, IT budgets are set to increase by 64pc this year, according to the Version 1 CIO Survey 2015.
Established almost 20 years ago, Version 1 is Ireland’s biggest indigenous IT consulting company, employing more than 700 people in both Ireland and the UK. One of the fastest-growing IT services companies in western Europe, Version 1 has doubled both profitability and revenue over the last few years.
The Version 1 CIO Survey 2015 of 150 business leaders in a cross-section of industries found that 80pc of CIOs reported a positive business outlook this year with growth above or on target.
Cloud adoption is strong, with 61pc of CIOs using cloud for a competitive or critical business application in the last year.
Legacy modernisation, digital, cloud and business intelligence (BI) and analytics are the top technology priorities for CIOs in the next two years.
CIOs need to up a gear on DevOps
Around 65pc of CIOs said digital transformation will be critical to their organisation in the next two years. However, adoption might not come easy, with 54pc of CIOs saying that they are not ready for it.
Some 77pc of organisations do not currently run a DevOps approach for software deployment; while software application development and maintenance accounts for 56pc of all IT operations outsourcing.
Overall, the survey indicates a positive outlook for CIOs and IT investment over the next two years.
While day-to-day operations still feature high on the agenda, interest in newer technologies and trends such as digital transformation, cloud and BI and analytics is indicative of a move to focus more on business transformation initiatives.
DevOps is showing lower levels of adoption, possibly aligned to the incidence of software application outsourcing and a lagging in this approach by outsourcing service providers.
IT strategy image via Shutterstock
