CIOs still under pressure to "do more with less"

CIOs are still under pressure to "do more with less" and demonstrate that the IT department can deliver more value than the business can buy out in the marketplace, according to new research from analyst Gartner.

The research report, IT leaders' next big decisions, says CIOs need to focus on the few key strategic decisions they have to make each year and set deadlines to complete them.

One of the main things CIOs are advised to do is reassess the role IT will play in their business over the next few years and decide whether IT will merely enable or actively contribute to the enterprise.

Key to that is finding the right mix of IT service delivery, business process transformation and innovation to extend current and create new sources of competitive advantage for the organisation.

Budgetary constraints, however, remain an issue and Gartner recommends adopting a "zero-based" budget to force tighter scrutiny of the proposed benefits of all IT spending requests throughout the year.

The role of the IT profession is predicted to split into four domains of expertise over the next five years: technology, information, process and relationships. In terms of technology trends Gartner predicts that one in five leading adopters of IT will have employee-owned laptop schemes in place by 2007.

Outsourcing also remains a key strategic decision for CIOs and Gartner says IT leaders need to have a plan in place for when they are going to outsource various parts of their IT operations.

"Most enterprises must manage IT budget growth rates at levels below the expected rate of business growth - they must 'do more with less', [but] CIOs must focus on contributing to business results, often by improving and integrating business processes and delivering more effective business intelligence," the report said.