Logicalis US: CIOs Get No Respect From LOB Executives

In the world of enterprise IT, many corporate CIOs can relate to legendary comic Rodney Dangerfield, in that both are often treated with “no respect”.

But unlike Dangerfield, CIOs are refusing to take such treatment lying down, and are fighting back against Line of Business (LOB) executives who refuse to include them in the decision-making process for major technology investments, according to a new study from Logicalis US.

The IT solutions and managed services provider recently published its third annual Global CIO Survey, which polled more than 400 CIOs worldwide to gauge their opinions on the state of enterprise security decision-making and shadow IT.

According to the study, IT leaders are struggling to cut down on shadow IT because LOB executives continually bypass both the CIO and IT departments when making major technology investments. Logicalis found that 31 percent of CIOs globally are routinely bypassed by LOB in IT purchasing decisions, while 90 percent are bypassed at least some of the time.

While CIOs have typically had limited means of pushback in regard to their exclusion from technology purchases, about 42 percent are now actively utilizing a new internal service provider model that will help them increase business value and relevancy in the decision-making process, according to Logicalis. This new model will help CIOs to regain their status as security experts and make them more relevant in the eyes of Line of Business executives, according to Vince DeLuca, CEO of Logicalis US.

“The consumerization of IT and the widespread availability of as-a-service cloud options has, therefore, made it both easy and, in many cases, practical to bypass the IT department,” said DeLuca in a statement. “These actions, however, have yielded significant consequences for the IT professionals tasked with corporate IT governance and security measures – a fact which has forced many CIOs to redefine their role from that of technologist to what is fast becoming known as the ‘internal service provider.’”

Despite the amount of disregard shown toward CIOs, they survey found that 66 percent of CIOs do hold the balance of power over technology spending, in that they are responsible for more than half of all the IT purchasing decisions in their organizations. However, this number has decreased by six percent since last year’s study.

So how can CIOs regain their status as security experts in a time when everyone considers themselves to be an IT pro? Logicalis suggests they continue to focus on becoming internal service providers, so they can ultimately create a leaner and more efficient department capable of managing services for LOB executives. Currently, 42 percent of CIOs spend nearly half of their time developing their internal service provider model, according to Logicalis.

So CIOs, take heart: You are not irrelevant or obsolete. You just need to redefine your role in the larger organizational hierarchy so executives understand just how vital you are to the business. Reinvention may be easier said than done, but it certainly isn’t impossible.