Straight to the Top: CIO Leadership in a Mobile, Social, and Cloud-based World, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 2

Technologies and Trends Driving Today's IT Innovation

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

—Eleanor Roosevelt1

Technologies that are driving innovation today are typically reflected in what organizations are spending their technology funds on—both in the current year and projected into the future. According to CIO magazine's “State of the CIO 2012” research report, larger companies are spending less as a measure of revenue at 3.7 percent. Small and medium-size organizations are spending between 4 and 6 percent of revenue (see Exhibit 2.1). Breaking down the numbers by industry, we see that high technology and utilities lead the way, with the highest percent of revenue spending at 7.6 percent. This year's average is 4.7 percent. Health care, manufacturing, and retail bring up the rear, with the lowest percentages of spending, at 4 percent, 2.6 percent, and 2 percent, respectively. As expected, the projects that teams are working on this year and into the next include business intelligence, mobility, and cloud computing, at 49 percent, 48 percent, and 40 percent, respectively.2

Exhibit 2.1 Your Spending

Follow the Money

I strongly believe that the money that CIOs around the globe are currently investing or planning to invest in the near future indicates the technical areas that CIOs and IT leaders need to focus on and, more important, ...