Adobe Survey Shows Pandemic Gave CIOs Greater Influence

In one year we went from a world with digital capabilities to a digital-first economy. To better understand how this has impacted and changed the role of the CIO, Adobe has released the findings of its global CIO survey.

On the global results, Cynthia Stoddard, senior vice president and chief information officer at Adobe (pictured) said, “Despite the enormous weight on our shoulders, CIOs are stepping up to the challenge.”

The global findings can be found in a blog here, while below is a snapshot of some of the key findings for Australia.

More responsibility, more pressure

Globally, three-quarters of CIOs say their role has expanded and that their responsibilities have increased. In Australia, 95 per cent of CIOs agree that they have greater influence on leadership decisions within their organisation. With this added responsibility, CIOs everywhere are feeling the pressure to digitally transform their organisations, especially in Australia.

Customer Experience Management (CXM) a key priority

Three-quarters (76 per cent) of Australian CIOs say that their organisation has a single customer experience strategy across all departments, and a majority (85 per cent) of CIOs see managing customer experiences as the primary priority of their role.

However, less than one in five Australian CIOs identify themselves as the person with most responsibility for CXM in the organisation. CXM initiatives are generally a shared responsibility, with Australian CIOs most commonly partnering with the CTO.

Key areas of focus:

Half (53 per cent) of an Australian CIO’s work focuses on digital citizenship
More than 80 per cent of Australian CIOs have a significant role to play in harnessing big data for their organisation
A quarter (25 per cent) say Application Deployment/Development was an area of focus
Security has increasingly become a bigger challenge in the past year, with 12 per cent of Australia CIOs now stating that as their biggest challenge. One in five (20 per cent) Australian CIOs anticipate their organisation will increase investment in security and privacy over the next year.

CIOs and CMOs form power duos

With more teams directly involved in shaping the customer experience, CIOs regularly partner with their peers to take their digital experiences from concept to reality. Of these relationships, there is arguably none stronger than the link between CIOs and CMOs.

In Australia, half (50 per cent) of CIOs now meet with their CMO counterpart on a daily or weekly basis, forming a true power duo. The same number (50 per cent) state that the frequency of working with the CMO has become more frequent.

Of those CIOs that do partner with the CMO, they all agree (100 per cent) that this partnership improves customer experience and promotes innovation.

Suzanne Steele, Managing Director for Adobe Australia and New Zealand said, “today, IT leaders sit at the nexus of their company’s transformation and innovation efforts. The pandemic has seen them shoulder a lot of extra responsibility, but most have embraced the challenge and taken the opportunity to collaborate with other leaders within the business to succeed in today’s new digital-first reality.”

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Adobe Summit 2021