CIOs Seek A More Collaborative, Virtual Workplace

CIOs who are moving toward more virtual, collaborative teams are benefiting from increased innovation, more effective talent recruitment and retention, and higher productivity, according to a new survey. One in six respondents said their companies are already seeing these results, and another one-fifth expect to garner benefits within a year.

The CIO should spearhead the transformation to a more virtualized workplace, according to 45 percent of respondents. Only CEOs ranked higher, with 47 percent, indicating the CIO is a strategic enabler who, alongside the CEO, can align IT capabilities with business needs.

Key findings include:

-- Virtual team structures are fostering more productive relationships with internal and external partners.

-- Organizations that have embraced virtual teams benefit from increased innovation and competitiveness, but often lack methods to measure the quantitative impact on the bottom line.

-- CIOs have a unique enterprise-wide perspective and are familiar with the people, tools, technologies, and techniques needed to create a corporate culture of virtual teams.

Comment from Malcolm Frank, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Cognizant: Business leaders today are exploring new ways of working in response to disruptive industry changes - globalization, new collaborative methods and technologies, and a rising tech-savvy generation of employees and consumers. The virtualization of people, processes, and technologies is resulting in faster time to market while unleashing innovation.

Comment from Mark Livingston, Senior Vice President, Cognizant Business Consulting: Working with global knowledge-based companies, we witness first-hand how virtual teams are more likely to take hold when the CIO is engaged in the process. CIOs have the clout and the top-to-bottom perspective to enable business process change, weaving together collaborative business processes and platforms often based on cloud, social and mobile technologies to make work more productive and cost-effective.

About the survey: Cognizant, a provider of consulting, technology, and business process outsourcing services, published the report, "Next-Generation CIOs: Change Agents for the Global Virtual Workplace." The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted the research across Europe and North America and wrote the report in cooperation with the Cognizant Business Consulting practice. A total of 402 respondents in Europe (52 percent) and North America (48 percent) participated in the survey, conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit in May 2010. Forty-five percent of respondents hold C-suite or equivalent positions, and another 29 percent are senior vice presidents, vice presidents or directors. The remaining 26 percent are managers, department or business unit heads, and "other" titles. Most of the organizations surveyed have global operations. Thirty-eight percent are small to medium-sized companies, with less than $500 million in annual revenue. Another 19 percent report $500 million to $5 billion in annual revenue, and 33 percent exceed $5 billion in annual revenue. Forty-six percent of respondents have IT responsibility. The survey sought to explore differences in perspectives between IT and non-IT functions, but found considerable alignment between the two. Strategy and business development, and general management were the other main functional categories, with 13 percent in each. The remaining 28 percent fulfill a range of functions.

Contact: The full report on the survey is available at http://www.cognizant.com/nextgencio