Digital transformation involves the entire company and its partners

Whitepaper regarding the new “2023 CIO Agenda” study by CIO, CSO, and COMPUTERWOCHE

What are CIOs planning when it comes to digitalization and their corporate IT? What strategies are they pursuing and how are they addressing the shortage of IT experts? The current “2023 CIO Agenda” study explores these questions and more.

CIO Agenda 2023: Focus on Artificial Intelligence

While cloud, security and data are now commonplace, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important. For successful digital transformation, however, simply bringing IT up to date is not enough.

Download the “2023 CIO Agenda” study whitepaper free of charge

Learn which factors CIOs and top (IT) managers within companies in the German-speaking countries are considering in their digitalization strategies for 2023, their growth forecasts for IT employee figures within the companies, and much more besides!

For most companies, digital transformation is an integral part of their corporate strategy. In this study, around 80 percent of the IT decision-makers surveyed spoke of a dedicated digitalization roadmap. While cloud technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT), and data analytics remain core technologies, over 40 percent of respondents believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will have the greatest impact on a company’s business model in the future.

In addition to the use of new technologies, decision-makers in IT consider support from top management, the anchoring of a sustainability concept, a good work-life balance, and promoting their own IT specialists to be of significant importance for a successful transformation process. 30 percent of respondents believe their company is already well positioned in this respect.

Persistent change as the core of the digitalization strategy

Today, a digitalization strategy addresses the entire corporate structure and culture according to “CIO Agenda 2023”. Management support and a sustainability concept are must-haves. Furthermore, “work-life balance” is a topic no company can or should ignore, as it is quite clear that digitalization will fail without motivated IT professionals available to implement it.

In many cases, the sheer volume of tasks exceeds internal resources and skills. This is why more and more companies are bringing in external partners, customers, service providers, and sometimes even their competitors to implement future digitalization projects, thus safeguarding the future viability of their company.

The willingness of companies to change remains stable, with 35 percent of respondents agreeing, according to “CIO Agenda 2023”, with the need to work with external partners to relieve the burden on their own IT organization and achieve the digitalization goals they have set.

 

These and further insights are provided in the “CIO Agenda 2023” study whitepaper

  • Overview of CIOs’ digitalization strategies and which external partners are involved in them
  • Which strategies and concepts – from sourcing and IT security, to work-life balance – are being focused on
  • Assessments of the “ingredients” required for the digital mindset
  • Forecasts on how the number of employees in corporate IT will develop
  • Overview of work-life balance solutions already in use
  • Estimates of which technologies/IT issues will change the business model most significantly

All of the central results can be read exhaustively in the whitepaper on the IDG “CIO Agenda 2023” study, which is available free of charge. The following is a brief summary of some of the important findings and figures.

The majority of companies have already entered into partnerships for their digitalization strategy or are planning to do so in the near future.

  • Digitalization requires partnerships

Digitalization entails multiple tasks that an IT organization within a company will struggle to handle on its own. In fact, more than 54 percent of IT managers are already cooperating with their customers and 46 percent with consulting firms to share the workload.

  • Cooperation with competitors and startups, too

At 37.6 percent and 31.6 percent of the companies that were surveyed, “coopetition,” – i.e. project-based collaboration with competitors or with startups to bundle individual activities or resources – also forms part of the digitalization strategy.

  • Finding and retaining employees

Just under 23 percent of respondents plan to increase their workforce significantly over the next three years. Another 44 percent plan to increase it at least somewhat.

To find suitably skilled workers and retain employees, around 78 percent of the companies surveyed indicated that they provide opportunities for a good work-life balance. The top three of these are the option to work from home or remotely (54.7 percent), flexible and family-friendly working time models (53.3 percent), and healthcare support (34.4 percent).

Download the “2023 CIO Agenda” study whitepaper free of charge

More of the main findings from the “CIO Agenda 2023” study conducted by CIO, CSO, and COMPUTERWOCHE are available to read in greater detail in the whitepaper, which can be downloaded here in PDF format free of charge.