CEOs want CIOs to focus more on business than tech

Research by Eduserv has revealed the common concerns CEOs have when dealing with the CIOs - and much of it comes down to senior IT staff not focusing on business objectives, but worrying about the technology behind the organisation.

The company questioned 20 CEOs about what they would like to see change in ther organisation's IT departments and the ways they operate.

An overwhelming number of respondents said they wanted their CIOs to think about the wider business goals before deciding on the technology to power the company, while the second most identified issue was that CIOs are too preoccupied with the tech jargon and current trends, rather than making processes operate better.

"We need the people involved in IT to wake up in the morning thinking about how IT can run the organisation better, not about new technologies," one CEO said. Another explained a big problem was that those talking about IT weren't considering the impact of technological implementation, but were more concerned about throwing buzzwords around.

"Sometimes dealing with IT feels like heavy lifting all the time, trying to get behind and beyond the tech speak'," one of the CEOs explained.

Eduserv noted: "IT leaders should not underestimate the IT literacy of CEOs. The group we spoke to were clear and knowledgeable about technology possibilities for their organisations, and certainly not out of touch or unwilling to exploit new ways of working enabled by IT."

Although the CEOs identified that innovation was key to their company's success, it shouldn't be addressed before managing risk, which they consider to be a critical part of IT infrastructure. Additionally, CEOs think their CIOs should be looking deeper into reshaping their teams to make sure they have a long-term strategy in place. Flexible working, alongside putting the systems in place, rather than simply managing existing systems that don't necessarily benefit the company in the ways they should must be a priority.

Other trends Eduserv observed included that CEOs want their IT departments to be leveraging data insights better to improve customer experience, teams should eradicate legacy IT and stop buying technologies that won't necessarily benefit the company long-term.

"In line with a future where organisations must collaborate more closely, CEOs want IT teams to focus on looking beyond their organisations to source "common tools for common purposes," the report concluded.