Life has never been simple for IT leaders, but these days, complexity is shifting into high gear. This is the key lesson from our fifth survey on information technology strategy and spending. We asked 864 executives, including chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs), other executives in the IT function, and C-level executives in other functions about their organizations’ business technology agenda, their adoption of emerging technologies, and the impact of IT on management practices.¹

The demands on IT, results show, are more intense than ever. While many organizations express basic satisfaction with their own IT departments, new hurdles face IT executives as business units are demanding more value from the function. C-suite leaders are pressing IT executives for gains from transformational technologies like cloud computing, and they want IT to help turn growing stores of corporate data into information assets that support growth and guide innovation. And all this is playing out in a more challenging IT environment as competitors wield new technologies to wrest competitive gains and shape new product offerings.