Dive Brief:

• Business and IT leaders are much more closely aligned on IT strategies than commonly perceived, with the majority agreeing that the primary basis for making IT decisions should be to increase productivity and grow the business, according to a global report from Dell released Thursday.
• The report also suggests that the role of the CIO/CTO is more important to business strategy and growth than ever.
• Cloud was identified as the most important technology and the most critical IT spending priority for both IT and business leaders.

Dive Insight:

The survey, sponsored by Dell and conducted by PSB, examined how 1,200 business and IT decision makers’ views of technology have developed over the last several years, concluding that alignment between the two groups is at an all-time high.

"There is a lingering misperception that business leaders are disconnected during strategic IT discussions, but times have changed," said Matt Baker, executive director, Enterprise Strategy, Dell. "This study reveals that there is an increasingly common understanding between business and IT decision makers on the key IT trends and the growth opportunities that IT can deliver."

CIO priorities are changing as IT becomes more essential to business growth. As technology has evolved over the years, CIOs spend less time making sure systems are working and more time focusing on IT strategies that can benefit the entire company. A report released last month by Harvey Nash and KPMG found that more than half of CEOs say they are asking their CIOs to focus more on projects that create revenue and less on saving money.  

The report also looks toward the future of enterprise technology. More than 80% of those surveyed said their organizations are considering adopting a software-defined data center (SDDC). Some of those organizations have already completed the transition or are in the midst of one. Many global decision makers say SDDC is the most important digital transformation enabler, according to the report.