Australian CIOs need recipe for digital transformation success

For Australian CIOs, digital transformation is firmly embedded into their organisation’s formula for success, and the focus in their role is shifting to reflect this change.

“With their extensive knowledge of how the business operates, they’re now seen as the agent of change management, the guardian of data excellence, head of business intelligence and the governor of ethics and ESG [environmental, social and governance],” Louise Francis research director at IDC ANZ tells CIO Australia.

Digital transformation has become so important it is advancing the career prospects of CIOs. It has also become a metric of success in line with the changing expectations a CEO has of their CIO. Francis points to a 2021 survey of ANZ CEOs that found half now plan to promote their existing CIO to a senior leadership function with a focus on digital transformation.

“As a result of the pace and increasing unpredictability of these changes, the CIO must be able to take an adaptive, flexible design approach to digital transformation,” says Francis.

By 2023, 40% of Australian CIOs will be primarily measured for their ability to co-create new business models and outcomes through extensive enterprise and ecosystem-wide collaboration, IDC predicts. “There are no standard rules of engagement to follow and CIOs must have insight across their digital ecosystem to spot changes on the horizon before they happen,” she says.

Looking at the changing formula, digital transformation creates a central role for customer experience and the need to convert data to meaningful intelligence, Karan Khosla CIO for Sekuro  tells CIO Australia. An effective CIO needs to think commercially with a consumer-centric view as opposed to looking inwards and helping the business operate day after day.

Digital Transformation