CIOs in India are
prioritizing digitalization and
rivaling global top performers when it comes to their commitment to digital business, according to Gartner, Inc.
Gartner’s annual global survey of CIOs found that average IT budgets in India
are expected to grow 10.7 percent in 2017, nearly five times faster than the
overall global average of a 2.2 percent increase. However, India is struggling
with significant IT talent gaps.
The 2017, Gartner CIO
Survey gathered data from 2,598 CIO respondents in 93 countries and all major
industries, representing approximately $9.4 trillion in revenue and
public-sector budgets, and $292 billion in IT spending. Sixty five Indian CIOs
responded to the 2017 Gartner CIO Survey.
“India is one of the
fastest-growing economies in the world, and Indian CEOs are looking to their
CIOs to deliver on the promise of digitalization,” said Partha Iyengar, vice president and Gartner
Fellow. “Indian CIOs are being given the budgets to invest in digitalization
and the game-changing technologies that support it, but IT organizations remain
immature in some respects and lack key resources. How Indian CIOs deal with the
challenges caused by rapid business change and opportunities will help
determine the future success of their enterprises.”
When asked how much
their company's revenue will grow in 2017, the Indian CIOs surveyed reported
that they expected average revenue growth of 12.6 percent. This is much higher
than the global average of a 4 percent rise in company revenue among
respondents.
The rapid growth in the
IT budget poses an extra challenge for Indian CIOs, who will have to be even
more creative than their peers elsewhere in finding the skills they need to
pursue digital transformation. On the one hand, leaders have committed to using
digital technology for business advantage, but skills and resources topped the
list of worries at 21 percent.
“Indian CIOs have the
money to spend, but the availability of talent and skills necessary to
implement key projects remains a significant challenge,” said Iyengar. “The
lack of business analytics skills
is a global concern, and one that Indian CIOs feel keenly with 35 percent of
respondents listing it as a top talent concern. Twenty-five percent of Indian
respondents list overall lack of skills as a top-three talent gap, compared
with 12 percent of overall respondents. A quarter of Indian CIOs also reported
a talent gap in digital business and marketing while 19 percent cited lack of
specific technical skills.”
“Indian companies have
committed to digital business as resolutely as the world's top-performing
enterprises,” said Iyengar. “Like their top-performing counterparts, Indian
CIOs list digital business and growth or market share as their enterprises' top
strategic business priorities through 2017. In fact, Indian CIOs say it even
more emphatically with 37 percent listing digital business as a top priority
compared to 28 percent of global top performers and 21 percent of all
respondents.”
These business priorities
have altered the focus of Indian IT organizations. Indian CIOs mirror global
top performers when asked what their IT organizations emphasize. For example,
almost 9 out of 10 Indian CIOs stress support for digital business over
optimizing IT costs, and almost 80 percent say they emphasize innovation over
daily operations.
The commitment Indian
CIOs have made to digitalization, involves trade-offs and risks. Today,
digitalization accounts for 23 percent of the total IT budget in Indian IT
organizations which is more than typical performers (18 percent) but still
significantly below top performers (33 percent). Indian CIOs plan to accelerate
their funding of digitalization by 2018 to 35 percent of total IT budget
compared to a predicted 43 percent among top performers.
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