The CIO’s Perspective: Data & Analytics

In Evanta’s recent Leadership Perspective Survey, nearly 900 CIOs selected their top priorities and planned investments for 2022. Early results reveal that CIOs are striving to drive growth and improve customer experience for the enterprise, indicating ‘data and analytics’ as a top priority to ensure their enterprise goals are met.

The survey reveals that data & analytics is the 2nd highest rated business function priority for IT leaders and the 3rd in planned technology or service investments. Though both strategic domains have seen a decrease in importance from 2021 (D&A was ranked the #1 priority and #2 in investments), it still remains a mission critical objective for CIOs.

So, what are IT leaders doing in this space? 

One example comes from an executive within the Evanta community. An EVP and CIO from a $30B+ retailer stated, “Data & Analytics has always been a big focus. This year we're modernizing a data warehouse, bringing forward a centralized data strategy, and optimizing data governance. We can do this by becoming more cloud-based, and we will eventually move closer to a data fabric architecture.”

The team at Evanta qualifies the survey results through hundreds of CIO discussions each year. Here’s a look at the top rated goals and challenges for data and analytics among Evanta’s CIO community.

Through our many conversations, CIOs have indicated a need to understand how truly digital organizations manage and understand data. Ultimately, D&A maturity varies so drastically among organizations that it can be difficult for CIOs to know where to start. As they inch forward, they are sharing the obstacles that they’re facing this year. 

So, are CIOs putting their money where their mouth is? They are definitely investing in D&A services and technologies, but in some regions more than others.

Overall, 72% of CIOs who indicated planned spend in D&A have also indicated an increase in their capital investments. In fact, nearly 400 CIOs revealed that they will be investing in D&A  tools and services within the next 12 months.

Here’s a breakdown of how the Evanta communities have ranked this investment priority and the timeline for when they plan to invest.

The topic of Data & Analytics will be highlighted at the following CIO Executive Summits:

Atlanta CIO Executive Summit on May 10th

Boston CIO Executive Summit on May 11th

Dallas CIO Executive Summit on May 18th

Chicago CIO Executive Summit on May 25th

If you’re looking forward to discussing data and analytics further with other Evanta CIO communities, you can view all of our upcoming CIO summits here. This is the first in a series of blogs exploring the top 3 priorities for CIOs in Evanta communities this year.