CIOs prioritise innovation to improve digital customer connections

The role of the CIO is evolving with an increased focus on unlocking customer connections through service innovation, according to the 2021 Global CIO Survey from Logicalis, a global provider of IT solutions. The study, which questions 1000 CIOs from around the world, reveals the shift in the role of the CIO with the majority of respondents stating innovation, operational efficiency, and customer experience as their top priorities.

Over the last 12 months, there has been a notable shift in the defining aspects of the CIO role, with most respondents noting a significant increase in the time they now spend on innovation (79%), strategic planning (77%) and productivity (62%). This is a stark contrast to previous years, where the majority of CIOs reported a lack of time to spend on both innovation and strategic planning.  

 

CIOs are now tasked with revolutionising business infrastructures to tackle the modern world and increasingly digitally based interactions. Customers now expect to engage with businesses digitally as standard, and as a result companies need to innovate to redefine and elevate their customer interactions to stand out from the competition. Over the last year, 73% of CIOs state the importance of customer experience has increased and this isn’t slowing down any time soon. Additionally, 4 in 5 (81%) respondents believe that their focus on redefining the customer experience will grow over the next 5 years.  

 

CIOs should innovate to build agile and adaptable infrastructures which unearth hidden insights in the digital customer journey to empower closer customer connections. As IT leaders, they have the technical expertise to interpret customer engagement data and unearth hidden insights to improve the customer experience, optimise operations and achieve their business objectives.  

Mark Benson, CTO Logicalis UKI comments: “Increasing choice, access to unlimited information, and fewer loyalty incentives are just a few reasons why the modern B2B customer is firmly in control of their relationship with companies. With growing customer expectations, a personalised digital experience is crucial to retaining and attracting customers and prospects. To stay abreast of customer expectations, and compete with competitors, CIOs need to build an agile and adaptable infrastructure that can shift according to customer needs.” 


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