ANZ tech priorities in line with rest of the world
Gartner's 2015 CIO survey has uncovered that the technology priorities for Australian and New Zealand chief information officers over the next year are relatively in line with the rest of the world.
The 2015 CIO Agenda report showed that top of the technology agenda for ANZ CIOs is business intelligence and analytics, the same for the rest of the world. This is followed by cloud and mobile in ANZ, while CIOs in the rest of the world indicated that they are thinking about infrastructure and datacentre, and cloud. Mobile came in fifth on the priority list for the rest of the world.
According to Gartner, the driver behind the shift for the implementation of BI and analytics is that more businesses are looking to be actively experimental as they try to follow a leaner startup model. At the same time, the report indicated that 66 percent of ANZ CIOs are shifting their approach from structured regular data to unstructured information, such as multimedia and social information.
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Gartner added that the reason why cloud is a key priority for ANZ CIOs is because it has moved from being viewed as a concept to becoming a viable business option. Eighty three percent of enterprises see software as a service as either a first choice or an option, compared to 70 percent for the rest of the world. For infrastructure as a service, 68 percent of ANZ CIOs see cloud as either a first choice or an option, versus 55 percent of the global market.
The report also highlighted that it observed a majority of ANZ federal and state governments release cloud-first procurement policies during the past 18 months, which is making it simple for public sector CIOs to procure cloud services.
Despite these priorities, Gartner has predicted that IT budgets for ANZ companies in 2015 will shrink by 0.2 percent compared to 2014. However, 82 percent of IT budgets will remain within the IT department; an increase from last year.
"The pessimistic interpretation of this data is that there is no innovation or digital initiatives happening at all. Fortunately, anecdotal evidence suggests cautious digital adventures are happening outside IT or via third parties," the report said.
ANZ CIOs have also admitted to planning only for the short term, with 84 percent stating that they have only made plans for the next three years. As a result, 75 percent said they have recognised that they need to flip their leadership style from "control first" to "vision first" in the next three years.