Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) says evolution of Cloud makes Evolution of CIO a Necessity

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By Thomas Copeland on September 18, 2014 Technology & Software

Cloud, as we know it, is no longer just a delivery of services; it is transforming the entire world of IT and taking it towards business innovation.

A Recent study report by the Harvard Business Review Analytic Service, called “The Leadership Edge in Digital Transformation”, points towards the CIOs; it talks about applying the cloud services where they are needed but also be open to ideas that could help invest in end-users.

750 business executives were surveyed by HBR for this research from different departments besides IT; these departments included marketing, HR, finance also research/planning – all these use IT as a means for decision-making. The companies were a combination of sectors including consulting, finance and manufacturing with revenue of 1 billion dollars or more. The study highlighted the following IT trends;

1. Three quarters of the respondents believed that IT played a vital role to help them survive the fast paced business world.

2. Half of the respondents concluded that without sufficient IT tools, they can’t further advance their businesses.

3. The cloud is omnipresent, below 10 percent of the surveys indicated that organizations without cloud actually still exist.

4. IT leaders, who possess attributes of innovative thinking and sound knowledge of upcoming technologies, are considered vital for the firms.

The research study showed areas like customer interaction, employee processes, new product offers and IT business models were highly influenced by emerging technologies. Another fact worth mentioning is that about 32 percent of those companies that make IT an integral part of their businesses, have more than 50 percent of their resources in cloud.

62 percent believe that IT is profitable only if it is engaged both internally and externally. Internally, it helps companies against security breaches. And externally, companies approach a new technology partner to refresh elements of speed, innovation and technical expertise.

The evolution of Cloud and the CIO go hand in hand; as IT software handles much of the company’s functions the CIO can now handle more strategic operations. That is also true for other IT personnel. They can now easily handover their work to cloud services and engage themselves in other business projects.

The Digital Business transformation is taking place and this research shows us that IT plays an extremely important role in businesses now. Companies are responding by making use of IT to support their businesses and to gain a competitive edge.

It’s a great responsibility to lead your businesses through this fast paced IT change as 42 percent of the 750 respondents believe that this role should be assigned to the CIO. 21 percent are in favor of the CEO, 17 percent said individual LOBs, where as a small 15 percent voted for the COO.

Minute by minute, IT is developing, emerging, innovating hence the CIOs need to stay in this race by studying the latest trends and being up to date with the new technologies available; they also need to learn how to take full advantage of these trends to empower their customers and use it as means to serve their businesses better.