New IBM Study Shows that Analytics and Self Service Top the List for Midmarket Chief Information Officers

New IBM Study Shows that Analytics and Self Service Top the List for Midmarket
Chief Information Officers
CIOs in the Most Successful Midmarket Organizations Actively Capitalize on New
Technologies

ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A new global study of Chief
Information Officers (CIOs) by IBM (NYSE: IBM) reveals that the top
technologies for enhancing competitiveness over the next five years at
high-growth midsize organizations are business intelligence and analytics and
self service portals. Eighty-six percent of midmarket CIOs identified business
intelligence and analytics - the ability to see patterns in vast amounts of
data and extract actionable insights - and three-quarters chose self service
portals.

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These results and other findings are detailed in the Midmarket Executive
Summary, which is part of the 2009 Global Chief Information Officer Study, the
largest face-to-face survey of CIOs ever conducted. The study, titled "The New
Voice of the CIO," represents the insights and vision of more than 2,500 CIOs
worldwide, including 158 CIOs in 31 countries employed at midsize
organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees. The Midmarket Executive Summary
illustrates the increasingly strategic organizational roles that CIOs play in
areas such as setting strategy, enabling flexibility and change, and solving
business problems.

As part of the research, the study looked at the difference between the
responses of CIOs from organizations with high growth in profits before tax
and CIOs from organizations with low growth. The findings revealed that all
CIOs must juggle several complementary, yet sometimes conflicting, roles, but
that CIOs at high-growth midsize organizations are especially proactive about
championing innovation and co-creating business strategy.

Other key findings of the study include:

-- Midmarket CIOs are braced for continued volatility - more than half
(55
percent) anticipate changing their business models over the next three
years;
-- More than half of midmarket CIOs are active in developing business
strategy, a number that drops to 33 percent when midsize and larger
organizations are combined;
-- The most successful CIOs at midsize organizations spend close to
two-thirds of their time on activities that spur innovation;

-- Fifty-eight percent of high-growth companies are focused on turning
mountains of information into insight and actionable information,
versus
43 percent of low-growth companies.

"Today's economy is driving a period of unprecedented change, which the most
successful CIOs at midsize organizations are embracing," said Marc Dupaquier,
general manager, IBM Global Midmarket. "They view technology as an enabler for
solving problems in today's smaller, flatter and smarter world. Today it's not
about how big you are, but about how smart you operate."

As CIOs in midsize organizations play an increasingly strategic role, they
continue to seek new avenues for IT to produce greater business value.
However, this must be balanced by an often competing pressure to lower costs
and increase efficiency. In this study, midmarket CIOs in high-growth
organizations are creating value by proactively turning the data their
organizations hold into information that can be used to develop better
products and services.

They are also taking the lead when it comes to exploring new ways of finding
and interacting with customers. Over the next five years, 88 percent of
high-growth midmarket CIOs plan to use new channels to attract and retain
customers, while 80 percent plan to improve their organizations' integration
and transparency capabilities to satisfy customer expectations. This contrasts
sharply with just 72 percent and 45 percent, respectively, of low-growth
midmarket CIOs.

About the IBM 2009 CIO Study

The 2009 CIO Study is part of the IBM C-Suite Study Series. Published by the
IBM Institute for Business Value, the C-Suite Study Series publishes in-depth
studies for Chief Executive Officers, Chief Finance Officers, Chief Human
Resource Officers and most recently, Chief Supply Chain Officers. The CIO
Study included more than 2,500 face-to-face interviews, conducted over four
months from January to April 2009. In addition to the detailed personal
feedback, IBM also incorporated financial metrics and detailed statistical
analysis into the findings.

The report also highlights a number of recommendations ranging from strategic
business actions and use of key technologies that IBM has identified that CIOs
can implement, based on CIO feedback from the study. The Midmarket Executive
Summary and a link to the full 2009 CIO Study are available at:
http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/cpe/html0/183234.html?ca=mmcio&me=pressrel&re=0909.

Contact:
Jeffrey Gluck
IBM Media Relations
914-765-6072 (o) 201-927-4507 (m)
jgluck@us.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

Jeffrey Gluck, IBM Media Relations, +1-914-765-6072, or cell, +1-201-927-4507,
jgluck@us.ibm.com