Senior execs spend three times as much as the CIO on technology innovation

This is according to latest research from member-based advisory company CEB, which looked at the benefits of business-led IT and the need for CIOs and their teams to act as technology advisers.

Based on the study, CEB has identified the best ways to harness the value of business-led IT.

Educate employees about what’s healthy
The first step is to get employees to understand the critical difference between healthy and unhealthy IT spend. As a general rule, projects which can be easily hosted through the cloud and have the flexibility to stand apart from the rest of the business should be encouraged as positive examples of business-led IT. Projects that need support from expensive dedicated in-house technologists, or basic commodity technologies – such as printers or servers – should be considered much more carefully.

Help manage the vendors
IT teams need to help executives deal with vendors, some of whom will be looking to exploit the less tech-savvy backgrounds of employees outside IT. Compared to equivalent sales to corporate IT departments, CEB research suggests that technology sales direct to the business close in less than half the time and have twice the contract value.

Shift the dial on ‘shadow spending’
Finally, CIOs still need to focus on shifting perceptions about how IT staff view ‘shadow spending’ and help teams understand its value. Almost one third (60%) of IT employees believe that business-led IT “always creates risks”, while less than 40% think it should be allowed at all.

Andrew Horne, managing director at CEB, said: “Most organisations now understand that business-led IT is here to stay. For every £1 spent on the corporate budget, another 40p is spent by other parts of the business.

“What CIOs are now realising is that business-led IT is another – often better, cheaper – way to achieve the goals of the IT department, particularly when it comes to innovation and testing out new digital capabilities. The goal is to improve the success rate of these technology investments – regardless of who came up with the idea.”

“The talent landscape is also experiencing huge changes. We found that 97% of IT roles will undergo changes in the next few years and IT teams will need to hire six new roles that don’t exist today. The CIO role will also change. The aspiring CIO is no longer someone who can run technology projects and keep costs down. They need to be able to coach business leaders and influence business-led technology strategy. This means working directly with the CEO and other executive team members.”