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Top 10 Predictions for The Worldwide CIO

Chief executives are eager to accelerate a digital business growth agenda. Focused on business model reinvention, the remediation of technical debt, sustainable IT infrastructure and more, International Data Corporation (IDC) unveiled their Worldwide CIO Agenda 2022 Predictions.

The key IDC predictions will likely impact CIOs and IT professionals over the next one-to-five years. IDC analysts believe IT leaders have opportunities that will not present themselves again in their lifetimes.

Chief Information Officer Agenda Predictions

With forward-looking insights, IDC provides senior IT leaders and Line-of-Business (LoB) executives with actionable guidance for managing IT investment priorities and implementation strategies as they continue to navigate the winds of change. The top ten IDC predictions are:

1: Through 2026, 65 percent of CIOs will sustain a cycle of tech-based empowerment, agility, and resilience through collaborative governance, new service delivery models, and a business outcomes orientation.

2: By 2023, 60 percent of CIOs will be primarily measured for their ability to co-create new business models and outcomes through extensive enterprise and ecosystem-wide collaboration.

3: By 2025, 75 percent of CIOs and CFOs will be forced to accelerate or enact formal technical debt management practices due to project delays or failures caused by unresolved technical debt.

4: Given the rising imperative for hybrid and smart workplaces, by 2024, 60 percent of CIOs will reimagine user support and create "Center of Excellence" (COE) based teams to guide the necessary investments in technology and process.

5: By 2026, 85 percent of organizations whose data practices inhibit their business and operating strategies will empower CIOs to lead cross-enterprise investments in data governance, quality, and compliance.

6: By 2024, 40 percent of CIOs will fail to effectively evolve IT's capability to deliver modern digital infrastructures, provide ecosystem tech governance, and support architecture-driven business outcomes.

7: Driven by investor pressure to minimize SG&A expenses, by 2024, 40 percent of organizations will shift at least 25 percent of IT spending to direct cost aligned with specific Line of Business products/services.

8: Despite the cost and friction, 60 percent of CIOs will embrace ecosystem-wide multifactor authentication for its efficacy as an essential minimum to counter rising cybersecurity threats by 2022.

9: By 2025, 60 percent of CIOs will collaborate to harness industry ecosystem capabilities as a critical source of innovation, data sharing, differentiation, and cybersecurity risk management.

10: By 2023, businesses will require 55 percent of G2000 CIOs to implement sustainable IT, embedding environmental, social, and governance practices into the technology life cycle from acquisition to disposal.

Outlook for New Investment Leadership Trends

"In the next five years, CIOs will be instrumental in helping their enterprise navigate the winds of change by enabling ecosystems, co-creating new business models and outcomes, empowering employees, and building resiliency," said Serge Findling, vice president at IDC.

That said, I'm anticipating the ongoing shift to cloud computing services, and SaaS offerings in particular, will align more business technology budget with savvy Line of Business leaders that have convinced CEOs they're more likely to leverage IT funds to deliver net-new digital growth.

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