Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Survey Reveals Recession Has Fundamentally Changed the IT Function as CIOs Look to a Multi-Sourced, Flexible Future Based Around Mobile Devices

Harvey Nash Group released its 2011 Harvey Nash / PA Consulting Group CIO Survey revealing that the IT function is emerging from the recession leaner, more flexible and partnering with a wider range of smaller local and offshore suppliers.

The 13th edition of the survey, undertaken by Harvey Nash in association with PA Consulting Group, reflected the views of over 2,500 technology leaders around the world and reveals that CIOs are:

-- Increasingly using flexible labor. 84 per cent of CIOs are looking to increase or maintain this level of flexibility. The majority of CIOs (76 per cent) have a flexible labor component of up to one-quarter of their entire workforce that includes the use of contract, temporary workers and offshore workers.

-- Spending a greater percentage of their IT budget on outsourced activity than ever before. Almost one-third of global CIOs will spend up to a quarter of their entire IT budget this year on outsourced activity, and almost half (46 per cent) expect to increase their outsource spend over the coming year.

-- Turning away from large-scale suppliers and increasingly partnering with multiple niche suppliers who can provide specialist skills to drive innovation around mobile, cloud and web computing. 39 per cent are expecting to increase their dependence on multi-sourcing in the next 12 months.

-- Focusing on building business rather than technical skills in their internal teams. In a significant drop this year, less than half (42 per cent) of global CIOs felt their organization suffered from a shortage of technology skills. This is a 16 per cent decline from 2010 and corresponds with the growth of multi-sourcing and use of flexible labor. By far the most in demand skills for internal teams were business analyses and business facing architecture.

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