Firms look to CIOs to drive efficiencies

CIOs will form an invaluable part of the decision making process over the year ahead

Organisations will increasingly look to their chief information officers (CIOs) over the next year to help cut costs and improve efficiencies, according to new research from application infrastructure firm Progress Software.

The firm evaluated customer feedback as well as its own research and development and concluded that next year will see several key technology trends emerge.

These will include the growing prominence of collaboration, software-as-a-service, cloud computing and open source technologies.

It also concluded that CIOs will focus on seeking additional budget for innovation, defending existing budgets through outsourcing non-core activities, or stripping out costs.

"In difficult economic climates it is even more important that CIOs make the case for continued investment in IT to obtain greater operational efficiencies, reduce costs and help keep innovating," argued Giles Nelson, chief technology officer at Progress.

"It is often too simple just to accept budget reductions without assertively articulating the benefits of continued investment."

Nelson added that CIOs should be thinking carefully about creating further efficiencies for the business through greater process automation, as well as perennials such as greater business IT alignment.