CIOs lack skills needed to lead UK business by 2018

Posted by Wes Thompson

New research suggests that IT leaders lack faith in the current crop of CIOs to lead IT in business in five years’ time

Newark – 22 October 2013: 73 per cent of current IT leaders are unsure that the CIOs of today will be the right people to lead IT within UK businesses within the next five years, according to new research commissioned by Reconnix, the Open Source and Cloud Service provider.

The Future CIO study surveyed 100 UK-based IT leaders to aggregate their thoughts on the future of technology leadership in the enterprise. When asked why they felt today’s CIOs will not be leading IT in the next five years 50 per cent cited a lack of general knowledge of business strategy, while nearly half (43 per cent) cited a lack of technical skills. 36 per cent also felt that their knowledge of IT and their skill sets will not be suitable for the IT landscape of 2018. Even more worryingly for UK enterprises, over a third (37 per cent) of those surveyed also do not believe that enough is being done within their organisations or the industry to guarantee that future CIOs will have the skills they need to ensure business success.

Looking forward to the next generation, skill sets need to evolve drastically. Over two fifths (44 per cent) of IT leaders surveyed suggest that the CIOs of 2018 will have to be financially savvy, innovators (33 per cent), and will need to be able to act as a trusted business advisor (28 per cent). Cross organisational collaboration will also be centre place as it is a widely held view amongst IT leaders that CIOs will have to strengthen their relationships with other business heads with the heads of legal (27 per cent), CFOs (20 per cent) and COOs (18 per cent) identified as priorities.

“It is evident that today’s CIOs are not being given the support to deliver the business acumen that they require,” explains Steve Nice, CTO of Reconnix. “Many feel isolated and this sentiment is currently reinforced at board level. As it stands more than a third of IT leaders do not believe that enough is being done to guarantee that future CIOs will have the skills they need to ensure business success. This lack of transparency and innovation at board level has to change if tomorrow’s CIOs are to be confident business leaders.”

In the next five years, 56 per cent of IT leaders believe Cloud (IaaS, SaaS, Paas) will be fundamental to the delivery of IT services within businesses and the majority also feel it will be important to have a knowledge in Open Source software. Previous research from Reconnix has forecasted the rapid growth of Open Source systems in the enterprise, which highlights the importance placed on this skill set by IT leaders.

“CIOs naturally lead the charge in innovation and our research shows that half feel that as new technological solutions are adopted it will require a new type of CIO to work with various business heads. Since CIOs intrinsically understand the IT space it stands to reason that to help drive technological and economic growth they must also understand business strategy.”

“Clearly the CIOs role must change if they are to become the business leaders of tomorrow. To do this they need to develop the skills that our report indicates they are currently lacking,” Continued Steve Nice.

The Future CIO study gives a full overview of all the findings from the research and insights on how to be the CIO of tomorrow.

Download the report.

Follow the conversation @reconnix #FCIO

Investment in Open Source Technology to Increase Significantly by 2018

Posted by Wes Thompson

Our recent survey, which aggregated the views of 100 IT leaders in the UK’s private and public sectors, revealed that more than half of respondents will spend at least 20% of their IT budget on Open Source applications and software within the next five years. Results also showed that as much as 61% of respondents intend to invest 20% or more into Open Source, with the majority – 48% – expecting to invest between 20% – 40%. 10% believe that their Open Source spend could account for as much as 60% of their total budget.

This represents a huge climb, up from the 72% of IT leaders who say that they oversee a portfolio in which just a fifth or under (0-20%) is made up of Open Source technology today. The survey also revealed that investment levels in Open Source technology will continue to rise in the long-term (the next ten years) with 16% of respondents suggesting that they expect to allocate 40-60% of their budgets to Open Source technology investment by 2023. A further 4% believe they will be allocating between 80-100% of their budgets to Open Source technology by that time.

Set against a backdrop of challenges including reduced IT budgets, a lack of IT skills and IT infrastructures burdened by complexity, this drive for future investment may well be hampered by the current levels of Open Source traction. This is reflected in 77% of respondents that indicated that they intend to invest less than 20% of their total IT spend on Open Source technology in the next 12 months. But the barriers to Open Source adoption are rife. Nearly half of IT leaders (47%) revealed that cost implications and another 43% that vendor lock in are current barriers to the adoption of Open Source technology. These leaders also indicated that a lack of in-house skills to implement Open Source solutions was holding them back, while 55% of IT leaders also agreed that that there is little to no understanding of Open Source amongst C-level decision makers outside of the IT department – potentially making it harder to justify investment into this technology to the executive level.

Overall, the research findings have shown that Open Source is definitely on the agenda for IT leaders. Yet, many IT leaders seem hesitant to invest in this technology as priority, preferring to put it off as a challenge to resolve in the medium term. The reality is of course that the sooner Open Source is adopted into an organisation’s IT Eco-System, the sooner an organisation as a whole can benefit from the flexibility, agility and cost savings associated with this type of technology. Ultimately, the benefits of Open Source software have been well documented, but there is also huge potential for any enterprise to make significant savings with regards to the total cost of ownership of their IT estate by implementing these technologies.

If you want to find out more about the future of Open Source technology investment we encourage you to download the ‘Open for Business’ insight paper by clicking, here.

What do you think about the report? Do you disagree? We’d love to hear your opinions, leave a comment below.

What’s holding back innovation in government?

Posted by Wes Thompson

Steve Nice, Chief Technology Officer at Reconnix, the Open Source applications ecosystem company, shares his thoughts on the current state of Open Source adoption in the public sector from the perspective of an SME supplier. He also highlights three key steps to unleashing its potential.

Much has been written about the use of Open Source in government over the last few years. Yet, despite a strong directive from Francis Maude, and the Cabinet Office, many central government workers in IT decision making positions still appear to be hesitant about implementing alternative software solutions into their existing technology stack.

So, just what is holding back Open Source innovation in government?

Many civil servants may say it would be a costly exercise to switch from proprietary software to a fully-fledged Open Source alternative. In my opinion, that is untrue; when done right, implementing Open Source alternatives can be more cost effective.

Others would say that Open Source is not tried and tested – and is therefore unreliable. Again, it’s difficult to give that argument much credit when you look at the multitude of Open Source solutions that are successfully implemented and used by the private sector.

I think the truth about what is holding back Open Source innovation in government is less black and white than either of those two cases.

In short, I believe it’s a cultural issue. I say this because government organisations, especially those in central government, are used to procuring their IT through large (and therefore perceived low-risk) organisations. Civil servants have become complacent and too comfortable in the fact that spending their large IT budgets with equally large organisations often decreases the risk they take on themselves.

This culture of being ‘risk averse’ has been acknowledged by government, who has recently announced that it has set the Open Standards Board which will aim to help identify and drive open standards into the C-level , in the hopes of achieving the desired change.

The creation of the Board, which includes government CTO Liam Maxwell, is a welcome move by government from our perspective as it should encourage senior civil servants to move towards the end goal of becoming more innovative and Open Source minded.

It is however worth pointing out that, there have been many attempts to do just this in the past, with varying degrees of success.

Unfortunately, at this point in time the current ‘risk averse’ culture that is prevalent in government isn’t helping to put the innovation and cost savings it so desperately desires into the very fibre of its technology. It also is not helping drive the agenda to adopt Open Source, learn from the private sector, or work with an increasing number of ready and able SMEs.

The question is, how do you change the ‘risk averse’ culture and help ensure that the true potential of Open Source is realised where it is most needed?

Build a culture with an Open vision

For Open Source to become a true beacon of innovation and an effective cost saving alternative, the culture of those making IT decisions needs to change.

IT decision makers in the central government sector have to become more open-minded, less risk averse and individually willing to put a steak in the ground in the name of building a better ICT future. The premise of Open Source is after all built on collaboration, a different way of working.

It is the right time to start building Open Source into government’s vision now. I say this because significant opportunities exist at this moment in time to review existing infrastructure in light of budgetary constraints and a desire to become more agile.

Open Source adoption can be the ultimate tool for creating a new culture and driving efficiency when it comes to upgrading existing kit or services when they reach end of life. But it is only when government IT decision makers are willing to step outside the traditional proprietary boundaries, and work as collaboratively as possible with the right partners, that ICT will realise the benefits of Open Source.

Set up innovation centres

I admit that it is easy to say civil servants need to be less risk averse. I do appreciate the pressures that they face in having to deliver more with less.

But why not approach implementing Open Source as many in the private sector would – by trying and testing it?

IT decision makers should set up innovation centres where Open Source, and other technologies, can be tested in a ‘safe’ environment.

An innovation centre will give IT decision makers the opportunity to test software and other Open Source solutions in a quick fire, quick fail, quick succeed manner. It gives them the opportunity to quickly set up an alternative solution and test whether it is right for their environments, all while de-risking the project.

Learn from others and build on their success

Another key directive from the echelons of power in government is to learn from best practice case studies and from partners.

Government IT decision makers need to go far and wide to learn not only from the private sector about what has worked at an enterprise level with regards to Open Source, but also to find out who the right partners are to talk to about Open Source implementation.

I am sure they will quickly find that it will rarely be the traditional suppliers – but rather a set of innovative, forward thinking and knowledgeable SMEs that take the lead in this market.

By embracing Open Source technology as a path to success,  being less risk averse and willing to drive innovation in a collaborative way, public sector IT decision makers will be able to deliver on the goal of ‘better for less’.