CIOs believe the pace of digital transformation will increase in 2020

A new survey of over 300 enterprise chief information officers (CIOs) shows that more than 90 percent expect the pace of digital transformation to increase in 2020.

The report from Flexera shows that customer experience is the top driver of digital transformation efforts with 69 percent rating it very important, but only 36 percent considering themselves very mature in this area.

As a result, CIOs are planning for heavy adoption of cloud (public, private and multi-cloud) and artificial intelligence (AI) in 2020

"The findings in the 2020 CIO Priorities Report echo changes we've made in our own company and have encouraged our customers to follow," says Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Flexera. "We're seeing CIOs and IT departments being tasked with leading the digital transformation -- from migrating to the cloud or transforming the customer experience -- and this demand is only going to increase, according to the report."

Challenges to transformation include worries about vendor lock in, while 89 percent see the lack of quality data as an obstacle to good decision making. Data protection and privacy are concerns too, with 84 percent planing to increase investments in these areas, while 83 percent plan to increase investments in cloud security in 2020, with 47 percent planning for significant increases.

In North America 52 percent of respondents expect to make use of external partners to fill skills gaps created by digital transformation. 79 percent expect to put increased resources into training employees.

"Today, businesses are required to make fast but well-informed decisions on a daily basis to keep up with the ever-changing tech landscape," Ryan adds. "Consequently, it's imperative that IT is involved early on in business-strategy planning, not simply as an implementer of technology, but as an equal partner in the business. The role of equal partner brings with it new challenges for IT and the CIO."

The full report is available from the Flexera site.

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