The research from KPMG notes that modern CIOs expect IT to contribute directly to the realisation of their business strategy and have a central role in their organisation's management.
According to the report – entitled `From cost to value - the 2010 global survey on the CIO agenda' , which took in responses from around 450 CIOs around the world – financial sector CIOs are still heavily focused on operational IT concerns.
Eighty-one percent of CIOs said they are putting a renewed focus on getting the best value from IT investments, giving the focus their top priority.
The research reveals that outsourcing appears to have fallen some way from the top of the CIO agenda in its own right, suggesting that outsourcing is now just part of 'business as usual' to a typical CIO, says KPMG.
However, over two-thirds of the 450 CIOs surveyed for this report indicated that they now expect to pay far more attention to the price:quality ratio they currently experience.
Commenting on the report, Bryan Cruickshank, a partner with KPMG Advisory in the UK, said that, whenever you hear of organisations wanting to focus on value, it's tempting to immediately think of cost cutting. "However, our survey suggests a dual focus amongst today's CIOs. Understandably, they are pursuing value by reviewing outsourcing arrangements and retaining a firm focus on cost optimisation for example", he said.
"At the same time though, they are demonstrating their willingness to move the CIO role from its typically operational home into something more transformational", he added.
"Successful IT value creation needs to integrate and align the organisation's technology, people and processes. One of the major potential pitfalls is the inability of many organisations to find suitably skilled people to take this forward", he said.