201505 IT Trends 2015

What’s next.
Key European
IT Management Trends
for 2015
Results of an international study:
Issues, Investments, Concerns, and Practices
of Organizations and their IT Executives
dr.lec. Barry Derksen MMC CISA CGEIT, Stedin,
Business & IT Trends Institute, VU, NOVI
Jerry Luftman Ph.D.,
Global Institute for IT Management

Table of Contents
_
Executive Summary ....................................................................... 3
Top IT Management Concerns ................................................... 4
Largest investments and most important technologies ........ 10
IT Practices (Organization, Budgets, Staffing) .......................... 18
CIO reporting relationships, time allocation, background,
tenure and performance measurement ........................... 30
Future of IT ...................................................................................... 38
Summary and Conclusions .......................................................... 41
2

This is the fourth annual
European research on
IT trends for CIONET. It
is based on the authors’
research underway since
1980. This report presents
the major findings from the
35th Anniversary IT Trends
Survey based on responses
from 2,552 organizations
worldwide; 801 organiza-
tions within Europe rep-
resenting 24 European
countries.
It is clear that organizations in Europe
and around the globe are continuing to
invest in IT to improve operations, re-
duce costs, and enable/drive strategies.
SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, and
Cloud) technologies are clearly trans-
forming the industry. IT budgets, hiring,
and salaries are modestly increasing,
and IT executives are cautiously opti-
mistic that this trend will continue into
next year. While the global results are
available in multiple other publications,
the scope of this report is Europe in
comparison to the rest of the world.
The important topics elaborated in this
report include:
-- IT spending patterns, including
sourcing, and the use of cloud and
shared services.
-- IT workforce trends, including
retirement forecasts and specifics
about the performance analyt-
ics used for in-house and out-
sourced IT, as well as to evaluate IT
executives.
-- To whom CIOs report, what they
do with their time, with whom they
spend it, what they do with them,
and what they think about the role
of IT in strategy and innovation.
-- Skills requirements for the success
of new IT hires, mid-level IT profes-
sionals, and CIOs.
-- The personal views of senior IT
leaders about their most important
and worrisome IT management is-
sues and technologies.
Overall, IT is becoming more strate-
gic and business focused. It appears
that organizations are becoming more
digitized with their focus shifting away
from tactical and organizational IT is-
sues like efficiency, service delivery, and
cost reduction to more strategic and
organizational priorities like business
agility, innovation, the velocity change in
the organization, IT time to market, and
the value of IT to the business. Some
suggest that IT is the business. Time will
tell if this is a widespread trend, but it is
here now among global and European
organizations, and it is confirmed by
a corresponding shift in how CIOs are
spending their time.
3
Executive Summary
Global GlobalEurope Europe
5 5MOST IMPORTANT IT
MANAGEMENT CONCERNS
MOST INFLUENTIAL
TECHNOLOGIES
3. Velocity of change
in IT
4. Business Cost
Reduction /
Controls
5. Business
Productivity
3. Business Cost
Reduction /
Controls
4. Business
Productivity
5. Infrastructure
Capability
1. Business & IT Alignment 1. Analytics / Business Intelligence
2. Business Agility 2. Application
/ Software
development
3. Data Centre
Infrastructure
4. Cloud Computing
5. Enterprise Resource
Planning
2. Big Data
3. Customer
Relationship
Management
4. Cloud Computing
5. Bring Your Own
Device

4
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004IT and Business Alignment 1 1 2 1 3 2 1 2 1 1 1
Business Agility 2 2 3 2 2 3 13 17 7 5
IT Time to Market 3
Business Cost Reduction / Controls 4 3 1 4 1 1 7 4
Business Productivity 5 4 1 4 1 1 7 4
Security / Privacy 6 9 8 7 9 9 8 6 3 2 3
Business Continuity / Disaster
Recovery
7 8 6 5 3 6
Time to Market / Velocity of Change 8 7 3 2 2 3 13 17 7 5
IT Value Proposition in the Business 9
Innovation 10
Infrastructure Capability 11 1
Revenue Generating IT Projects 12 2 9 9 6 8 17
Business Process Management 13 6 4 3 3 4 18 15 11 5 10
Globalization of IT 14 7 17 13 10 15
Change Management 15 13 11 11 11 14 6 7 3 2 3
New: IT Time to Market, IT Value Propoistion in the Business & Innovation
Note: IT Cost Reduction is out of TOP 15 (first time!), is now 23.
The participants were asked to select,
from a list of 43, up to three IT manage-
ment issues that they considered ‘most
important’ to their organization and up
to three issues that were ‘most impor-
tant or worrisome’ to them personally
or that “keep you up at night.” This is
similar to the approach used since the
research began in 1980; albeit the sec-
ond, personal question was added for
the first time last year. Capturing both
the organizational and personal per-
spectives of the respondents provides
additional insights. Some items on the
selection list were modified or deleted
(based on very low selection rates the
previous year), and additional ones
added for this year’s study.
The organization’s top 10 most impor-
tant IT management concerns, from the
perspective of the senior-most IT leader
in each of the 2,552 organizations, are
shown in Figure 1, together with the
comparative rankings from the authors
last ten years of IT trends studies.
The global top management concerns
(see Table 1) tend to evolve slowly
except for concerns such as IT cost
reduction (ranked 23rd overall in 2014)
and business cost reduction (ranked
4th in 2014) which appear to be directly
related to the state of each region’s
short-term economy. Despite the pre-
vailing global economic conunundrum,
management concerns such as IT-
business alignment appear consistently
(see Table 1) both globally and locally in
the top management concerns.
Top IT Management
Concerns
Table 1.
Key management
concerns

Europe
Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Switzerland
U.K.
Alignment of IT and / with the
business
1 9 1 6 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 1
Business Agility 2 20 2 1 2 11 2 4 1 3 3 2 5 2
Business Cost Reduction / Controls 3 1 3 5 3 5 4 2 3 4 2 1 3 4
Business Productivity 4 29 11 2 4 15 8 9 8 8 4 8 14 3
Infrastructure Capability 5 21 6 30 6 16 3 10 5 9 6 6 15 5
IT Change Management 6 22 5 7 9 35 9 5 25 2 5 11 16 6
Globalization of IT 7 4 19 8 28 2 14 18 20 20 9 9 17 13
Velocity of Change in Business 8 12 20 3 29 36 24 19 6 21 27 4 18 14
Business Continuity 9 13 4 13 7 12 5 20 9 5 7 23 6 15
Legal Compliance - HIPPA, SarBox,
SAS70, PCI, etc.
10 14 21 14 17 17 25 6 10 10 8 5 7 16
5Interestingly, Business Productivity
(ranked 5th in 2014) and Revenue
Generating Initiatives (ranked 12th in
2014) have started to appear in similar
rankings across all geographies. Indeed
the pattern is emerging where an
increasing number of management
concerns rank similarly across all ge-
ographies. We expect as enterprises are
more assimilated in the global market,
their IT management concerns will
become even more consistent across
geographies.
Within Europe the top five IT manage-
ment concerns for 2015 (24 countries,
801 organizations) are:
1. Business & IT Alignment
2. Business Agility
3. Business Cost Reduction / Controls
4. Business Productivity
5. Infrastructure Capability
European country specific information
follows below.
Five most important IT
management issues and
concerns
24 European countries were repre-
sented in this year’s research. 13 coun-
tries have been well represented (above
10 responding organizations, over 1%
representation). These countries were
(in order of representation): Netherlands
(39.5%), Spain (14.6%), Finland (8.1%),
Germany (6.6%), Portugal (4.7%), Austria
(4.2%), Belgium (4.2%), Italy (3.3%),
Luxembourg (3.3%), United Kingdom
(3.0%), France (2.2%), Poland (1.3%), and
Switzerland (1.2%). The authors an-
ticipate that the continued increase in
the European data will provide a more
balanced perspective for the results. The
top ten most important IT management
issues for these countries are displayed
below.
There is relative consensus within
Europe about the top three manage-
ment concerns with regards to Business
& IT alignment, Business Agility, and
Business Cost Reduction. The diver-
sity between European countries in
the ranking of the remaining top ten
increases rapidly. The range of perspec-
tives across Europe is indicative of the
different emphasis that these enter-
prises place on the important issuers of
the day.
Table 2.
Top ten management
concerns Europe

6
1. Alignment of IT and
the business
Following the pattern of the past 30
years, alignment of IT and business has
been close to the top of the list of top
concerns since 2000 (Luftman et al.,
2013) (Derksen, 2013). Despite being
in the spotlight for such a long time, it
still remains a pervasive and persistent
goal. The data shows that it remains the
number one concern in North America,
Europe, Asia, and Africa, but slipped to
8th position in Australia, and 35th in
Latin America in 2014. Alignment of IT
and business has been considered an
important area right from the begin-
ning of the trends research. Initially, it
was ranked 8th in 1980, and remained
in the top ten until 1994. After that, it
remained in the number one position;
except in 2012, 2010, 2009, and 2007
when it slipped either to the second
or third position. It is expected by
many pundits that it will continue to
occupy the top spots in the coming
years; hence, it is not a surprise that it
has been ranked at or near the top of
the list of concerns in all geographies.
While there are some that advocate
using a different term (e.g., integrate,
fused, harmony), the important con-
cepts that are espoused are similar;
improve the business-IT relationship
to provide demonstrable business
value. Whatever term one prefers, IT
will continue to be seen as an integral
enabler and driver of efficiency and
effectiveness throughout the business,
especially with the emergence of lever-
aging IT for revenue generating initia-
tives. Both IT and business processes
are relatively mature on their own, but it
is their alignment that holds the key to
driving the businesses forward (Luftman
et al., 2013).
Alignment will remain high on the list
as IT and business evolve. It is more
important to continue efforts to im-
prove the IT-business relationship, than
debate what term to use.
2. Business agility
Business agility and speed to market
are essential for business growth in
today’s competitive economy, espe-
cially as organizations continue to
increase their use of IT for competitive
advantage. Business agility was first
introduced into the survey in 2003. It
has been ranked among the top ten IT
management concerns except 2007-
2008 when it was ranked 17th and
13th. Business Agility was ranked 7th in
2003, 5th in 2005, and 7th in 2006. It
has been ranked among the top three
global management concerns since
2009; mostly at number 2. Over the
years, it has maintained the 3rd posi-
tion in North America, 2nd in Europe,
Asia, and Africa, and 1st in Australia and
Latin America. This year, it is ranked 2nd
in North America and Europe, while
7th in Asia, and 5th in Latin America.
As organizations leverage IT to quickly
reduce business expenses and increase
revenues, Business Agility will remain
an important concern for management.
Business agility in concert with IT time
to market/velocity of change (ranked
3rd in 2014), IT value proposition to
the business (9th) is also indicative of
the future impact that IT will have (is
having) on revenues (which has fluctu-
ated between 2nd and 17th over the last
seven years).
3. Business Cost
Reduction/Controls
Business Cost Reduction has been
ranked among the top four manage-
ment concerns across the globe since
2013. In the authors previous trends
surveys it was combined with business
productivity; this year they are separate,
albeit even independent they are both
among the top management consid-
erations. Business productivity was
ranked among the top four concerns
since 2007; except 7th in 2008. This
year Business Cost Reduction /Controls
is ranked, 2nd in Latin America, 3rd
in Europe, 4th in Asia, 9th in North
America. Cost reduction is considered
the foundation of long- term sustain-
able competitive advantage espe-
cially during economic stagnation, and
therefore this will continue to be highly
ranked in all geographies. Leveraging
IT to attain these cost reductions and
improvements in productivity are es-
sential to the success of organization
and the future of IT. As organizations
continue to increase their focus on lev-
eraging IT for cost reduction, improving
productivity, and revenue generating
initiatives, we anticipate seeing a con-
tinued change in IT roles, spending, and
organizational considerations; perhaps
a transformation.

7
4. Business Productivity
There is general consensus on the
importance of business productivity and
cost reduction using IT, even though IT is
still perceived within a majority of enter-
prises as an expense. While the research
demonstrates productivity slowly moving
down the list, to reflect this change in
business perspective, as previously noted
they are both included in the survey and
both are among the top management
concerns this year.
Business productivity has been ranked
in the top four management concerns
for the past decade, except 2008 when
it was ranked 7th. In 2014 it has been
ranked among the top 6 management
concerns across all geographies except
Australia (ranked 32nd). The ranking of
business productivity as a management
concern shows a very erratic behavior,
moving from 7th place in 2008 to 1st
in 2009. Business productivity is rated
among the top 4 management concerns
across all geographies. We expect that it
will continue to remain among the top
10 for the foreseeable future. Conversely,
we anticipate IT cost reduction (ranked
23rd in 2014) to drop off the list in the
coming years.
5. Security
(Previously combined
with Privacy)
Since 1980 security has been included
with privacy. It was rated between
2nd and 9th since 2003. From 1980
to 1990 it was ranked between 12th
and 19th position, except 1985 when it
was rated 6th. From 2003-2006, it was
either 2nd or 3rd, and then 6th to 9th
between 2007 through 2013 (Luftman
and Zadeh, 2011, Luftman et al., 2013).
This year security is ranked 6th glob-
ally; second in North America, 32nd in
Europe, 30th in Asia, 38th in Australia,
31st in Latin America and Africa. Security
(like alignment) remains as a pervasive
and persistent concern. Recent head-
lines like the NSA fall-out and the Sony
Pictures breach exemplify the need for
companies around the globe to con-
tinue investing in their security systems.
It is expected that business continuity/
disaster recovery (ranked 7th in 2014)
and security will remain in the top ten.
Security is also the 8th ranked technol-
ogy in 2014 and ranked 4th overall in
technology investments.

8
IT management Issues
Most important or
Worrisome to IT Leaders
For a second year, we asked respondents
to report not only on the IT management
issues important to their organization,
but also on issues that were personally
“most important or worrisome to them”;
the things that keep you up at night.
While we have only two years of data to
present in Table 3 (worldwide), the year
to year changes are significant in that
new or revised selections have moved
into the top ten.
Security and Privacy moved from sec-
ond to third place where as alignment
kept the number one place. New in the
top three is Business Agility. New in the
top ten are Business Continuity, Vendor
Management, Business cost reduction
and IT time-to-market.
Interestingly CIO Leadership role
moved from the top three to eighth
place, indicating that the CIO is be-
coming less worried about their per-
ceived responsibilities in the enterprise;
albeit leadership is a top skill required
for CIOs. From the Europe countries
perspective Vendor management
interesting. Within Europe vendor
management is ranked 2nd; a rank-
ing which is not to be found in other
geographies. Belgium, France, Italy, and
Portugal ranked vendor management
first. In Table 4 the European top 10 is
presented.t
Yourmost
Impt.or
Worrisome
3 Most Important /
Worrisome to YOU
This question was asked
for the first time in 2013.
Org’smost
important
2014
2013
2014
1 1 Alignment of IT and / with the
business
1
2 5 Business Agility 2
3 2 Security / Privacy 6
4 4 IT Talent / Skill Shortage 26
5 13 Business Continuity 7
6 8 Business Productivity 5
7 31 Vendor Management 38
8 3 CIO Leadership Role 19
9 18 Business Cost Reduction 4
10 17 IT Time-to-Market 3
Table 3.
Things that keep you awake at night

9
Europe
Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Switzerland
UK
Business & IT Alignment 1 20 5 1 2 5 6 1 1 1 2 1 11 1
Vendor Management 2 3 1 19 1 4 1 2 14 5 1 7 3 3
Business Continuity 3 4 6 3 5 13 13 3 2 14 3 2 12 6
Business Productivity 4 1 7 13 6 6 2 4 10 15 4 3 13 7
Business Cost Reduction / Controls 5 8 8 4 7 1 14 16 16 16 5 5 14 8
Business Agility 6 12 9 7 8 14 7 17 4 9 6 39 4 19
CIO Leadership Role 7 21 10 2 9 16 15 18 15 10 7 6 15 10
IT Agility 8 13 11 5 10 17 16 5 5 11 8 8 5 11
Globalization of IT 9 9 12 6 11 2 3 6 21 12 9 12 6 9
Innovation 10 22 13 16 12 15 17 19 6 13 10 9 16 4
There are significant differences within
Europe when considering the top ten.
Both Austria and Switzerland ranked
alignment outside the top ten. Vendor
management seems to be important
across Europe, but both Finland and
the Netherlands ranked it 19th and
14th whereas the other European
countries placed it within the top
ten. Vendor management is ranked
higher than other continents. A pos-
sible explanation might be the Cloud
trend in which many Cloud suppliers
are from North America (e.g. Salesforce,
Amazon, Apple, Microsoft) and in which
European countries concentrate more
on the legal implications, also support-
ed by the European Union.
Moreover, these changes in the top 10
of things that keep you awake at night
also point to a shift in priorities and fo-
cus among senior business and IT lead-
ers, away from tactical and operational
IT issues like disaster recovery, service
delivery, and change management
to more strategic and organizational
priorities like the IT value proposition, IT
strategic planning, faster delivery, and
coping with changing conditions.
Table 4.
Management concern
– awake at night
2014-2015

10 Participants were asked to select, from
a list of 53 technologies, up to three of
their ‘organization’s largest/most signifi-
cant current or near-future IT invest-
ments’; up to three that they consider
most important’ to their organization,
and up to three that cause ‘the greatest
concern’. Some items on the selection
list from last year were deleted (based
on very low selection rates the previous
years) or modified, and additional ones
added to this year’s study.
Table 5 lists the top 22 technologies
identified as the largest investment for
the 2,552 participating organizations
worldwide, along with their rankings
since 2007. The rankings have shifted
when compared to 2013, yet all, but one
entry in this year’s top 15 were also top
15 entries last year. Specifically, a new
item, ‘Data Center Infrastructure’, which
ranks third, and ‘Legacy Applications,’
tied at 17th. Next to ‘Data Center’ a new
entry to the top ten is Security/Cyber se-
curity (ranked 8th). Customer/Corporate
Portals and Network/Communications
fell out of last year’s top 10.
Generally speaking, and consistent with
last year, a relatively small percentage
of the 2,552 respondents selected any
one technology. This indicates that IT
investments are well diversified across a
broad number of options. Only the top
six were selected by more than 10% of
the respondents. This is not particularly
different than the IT management issues
shown in Table 1, of which also the top
six were selected by more than 10% of
the participating organizations.
1
Blank cells indicate that the technology was not
asked about in that year of Study.
Largest investments and
most important technologies
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
Analytics / Business intelligence 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
Application/Software Development (previously Apps
developments)
2 5 4
Data Center / Infrastructure 3 new
Cloud Computing (SaaS. PaaS. IaaS) 4 2 2 3 5 17
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) 5 4 3 2 3 3 14 6
Customer relationship management (CRM) 6 3 5 5 9 13
Big Data 7 7 18
Security / Cybersecurity 8 16 15 28 7 11 8
Workflow tools 9 9 7 8 7 7
Integration (previously EAI/EAM) 10 11 16 9 18 5 12 32
Networks / communications 11 10 8 11 9 10 11
Disaster Recovery 12 11 13 14 4 6 3 4
Collaboration Tools 13 12 4 8 7 7
Customer/Corporate Portals 14 8 9
Virtualization 16 15 17 7 12 7 2
Legacy Applications 17 16
Employee Portals 18 20 34 20 14 22
Outsourcing IT 19
Innovation / Disruptive Technologies 20
Continuity Planning 21 13 11 14 4 6 3 4
Consumer Oriented Devices 22 36
Table 5.
IT Trends, 2007-2014 1

11
European Organization’s IT Trends – Investments
The Europe differences in the most
important IT Trends/investments can
be found in Table 6. There is, like
around the globe, consensus looking
at Analytics/Business Intelligence (A/BI)
being ranked first. Only Austria (7th) and
Finland (4th) rank A/BI outside the top
three. In the other IT Trends in the top
twenty there are significant differences
in the selected top IT Trends depending
on the country perspective.
Big Data, ranked 2nd, is a top three IT
trend in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain,
and UK; whereas it is ranked outside
the top ten in Italy and Luxembourg.
Ranked 3rd is CRM and is within the
top five in Austria, France, Italy, and
Luxembourg; but outside the top ten for
the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland,
and the UK.
Cloud Computing is a top five trend
within Germany, Italy, Netherlands,
Poland, Spain, and the UK, but is out-
side the top ten in Austria, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and Switzerland.
Europe
Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Switzerland
U.K.
Analytics / Business Intelligence 1 7 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1
Big Data 2 1 10 8 5 5 17 14 2 3 4 2 10 2
Customer Relationship Management 3 5 6 5 6 6 2 3 10 23 5 4 11 22
Cloud Computing 4 14 11 9 7 4 3 15 4 4 6 3 12 3
Shared Services 5 15 2 1 8 32 4 16 11 24 7 5 13 23
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) 6 8 12 2 9 3 5 17 38 25 8 11 14 5
Enterprise Architecture 7 2 13 23 10 2 6 18 22 5 9 32 2 24
Workflow Tools 8 16 14 12 11 12 18 5 23 1 2 16 15 4
Employee Portals 9 31 15 18 12 13 7 4 8 26 10 6 16 25
Master Data Management 10 32 16 11 13 14 8 6 12 27 11 17 17 6
Web Services 11 3 4 34 2 15 19 19 24 28 12 12 18 7
Voice Over IP (VOIP) 12 17 5 35 14 16 20 2 5 7 13 33 19 8
Customer/Corporate Portals 13 9 17 14 15 19 9 7 9 29 14 18 3 26
Application / Software Development 14 33 18 12 16 33 21 20 3 30 15 21 4 27
Continuity Planning 15 18 19 15 17 7 22 21 25 8 16 7 20 28
Unified Communication 16 34 7 13 18 20 10 22 26 31 3 22 21 9
Enterprise Resource Planning 17 35 20 3 19 34 11 23 19 9 17 42 5 29
Collaboration Tools 18 36 21 10 20 35 23 24 6 10 18 34 22 10
Security / Cybersecurity 19 10 22 24 21 21 24 25 7 11 19 35 23 11
Innovation / Disruptive Technologies 20 37 23 25 3 22 25 26 13 12 20 13 24 12
Table 6.
Top 20 IT Trends Europe

12
1. Analytics/Business
Intelligence
Analytics/Business Intelligence (A/BI)
remains in first place as the largest IT
investment, a ranking it has held for
six years straight. It has ranked in the
top three since 2003, when it was first
added to the list. A/BI was selected by
801 organizations
Comprehensive Report: 2015 IT Trends
Study
A big ‘THANKS’ to all CIONET members
who completed the IT Trends Study
Questionnaire! 12
(31.4%), as one of their three largest
or most significant IT investments.
However, the percentage of organiza-
tions selecting this is down from 42%
last year. It is worth mentioning that
potential synergies exist between A/BI
systems and the data made available
via investments in 5th-ranked ERP, 6th
-ranked CRM, and 7th-ranked Big Data,
as well as many of the other technolo-
gies listed in Table 5.
2. Application
and Software
Development
Selected by 330, or 12.9% of the re-
spondents, Application and Software
Development is ranked 2nd this year.
Interestingly, software development has
been moving up in the rankings since its
introduction in 2012. This high ranking
may come as a surprise in the world of
off-the-shelf software, Software-as-a-
Service (SaaS), and Cloud Computing;
and yet, custom software development
is still a critical undertaking in many
organizations. SaaS and Cloud should
not imply no application/software
development. Nearly 35% of the re-
sponding organizations are in industries
where developing and/or using custom
software is common. From an indus-
try perspective it shows that 13.84%
of the 2,552 responding organizations
are in financial services; IT hardware,
software, and services (8.28%); govern-
ment (7.89%); and medical technology,
telecommunications, and electronics
(6.14% combined).
3. Data Center
Infrastructure
Data Center Infrastructure was added
to the list of options this year and was
in 3rd place, selected by 327 or 12.8%
of responding organizations as one of
their three largest technology invest-
ments. These large investments in
infrastructure are surprising in light of
the significant growth of publically trad-
ed cloud providers and the many who
reported moves to “the Cloud” appear-
ing in the business and IT press, where
capital investments can be leveraged
into other current expenses. Increasing
use of the Cloud is confirmed by this
year’s IT Trends Study’s IT budget and
the cloud utilization data, as reported
below. Nevertheless, nearly 20% of the
respondents reported making large in-
vestments in Data Center Infrastructure.
It is noteworthy; however, that this
year’s study finds that nearly half of
cloud-base IT services are delivered
via in-house private clouds, and that
only five responses separated the
second- and fourth-ranked technology
investments.
Five largest IT Trends
investments

13
4. Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing was selected by 311
organizations (12.2%) as one of their
three largest IT investments. As indi-
cated in Table 5, the first appearance of
Cloud Computing was in 2009, when
both “Cloud Computing” and “Software-
as-a-Service (SaaS, PaaS)” appeared sep-
arately. These listings continued in 2010
and 2011; but in 2012, Cloud Computing
was redefined to include SaaS, PaaS
(Platform-as-a-Service), and IaaS
(Infrastructure-as-a- Service). Despite
this single, expanded definition, Cloud
Computing dropped to fourth place this
year as the largest or most significant
investment, down from second place in
2013 and 2012 and third in 2013. That
does not necessarily mean, however,
that fewer IT budget dollars are going
to Cloud Computing, or that fewer IT
services or solutions are being delivered
that way; and in fact, it appears quite the
opposite is occurring (as discussed the
“Participating Organizations and Their IT
Practices” section below).
Planning (ERP)
Investments in ERP systems have been
ranked among the top five position since
2009. This year it was selected as one
of the three largest investments by 288
(11.3%) of the respondents. Like data
centers, ERPs tend to be large invest-
ments. However, unlike data centers,
ERP systems are designed to provide a
vehicle for reducing business expenses
and optimizing business processes, both
important management objectives. Also,
ERP systems, by virtue of the compre-
hensive and integrated data that they
provide about internal operations, as
well about supply chains and custom-
ers, they enable second- and third-order
benefits when used in combination with
technologies such as A/BI. Thus it is not
surprising to see that ERPs continue to
be large, significant investments for many
organizations.

14
Last year, for the first time, respondents were asked to report on both their organiza-
tion’s largest IT investments as well as those “of greatest concern” personally to the
senior IT leaders themselves. This proved quite revealing2
, and so it was repeated
again in this year’s study. Additionally, this year respondents were also asked to
select up to three technologies that are “most important” to their organizations. By
separately assessing organizations’ largest technology investments, those of great-
est importance, and those of greatest concern to IT leaders, additional detail and
granularity are added to the research. This also provided some interesting insights as
detailed below.
2
Kappelman, L. A., McLean. E. R., Luftman, J.,
Johnson, V. (2013) Key Issues of IT Organizations and
Their Leadership: The 2013 SIM IT Trends Study, MIS
Quarterly Executive, 12(4), 227-240.
Most
significant IT
investment
Most
important
IT Trend to the
organization
Analytics / Business Intelligence 1 1
Big Data 2 7
Customer Relationship Management 3 2
Cloud Computing 4 5
Shared Services 5 8
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) 6 3
Enterprise Architecture 7 9
Workflow Tools 8 48
Employee Portals 9 13
Master Data Management 10 16
Web Services 11 44
Voice Over IP (VOIP) 12 54
Customer/Corporate Portals 13 6
Application / Software Development 14 18
Continuity Planning 15 11
Comparing
organizations’ largest
IT investments to their
most important ones
The technologies identified by the
respondents as being most important
to their organizations map fairly well to
those technologies where the organiza-
tion is making the largest investments.
As indicated in Table 7, seven of the top
ten are present on both of the lists, but
with different rankings. Also, asset man-
agement (at 4th), Customer/Corporate
Portals (at 6th) and Service Management
(at 10th) only appears on the most
important list. In the most significant
IT investments workflow tools (8th),
employee portals (9th) and Master Data
Management (10th) are in the top ten.
Table 7.
Comparing organizations’
largest IT investments to its
most important
(2014 – Europe)

15
The most worrisome
technologies for senior
IT leaders in Europe
This year’s top six technologies that are
most personally worrisome to senior
IT leaders (“things that keep you up
at night”) were selected by more than
11% of the respondents, with numbers
7 thru 19 by between 5% and 10%. The
top 10 most worrisome technologies
remained fairly consistent when com-
pared to last year. However, there are
some differences. In particular, BYOD
(18th this year), Enterprise Architecture
(15th), and CRM (13th) all dropped
out of the top 10 to be replaced by
Application Development (fifth, up from
15th last year) and the two new items,
“Data Center Infrastructure”(tenth) and
“Innovative/Disruptive Technologies”
(tied for seventh). Security moved up
from second to first, being selected
by 224 or 31.2% of the respondents,
while second-ranked Analytics and
Business Intelligence was selected
by 160 respondents (22.3%). Disaster
Recovery ranks third this year as the
most worrisome technology, selected
by 106 (14.8%). Integration is fourth with
14.5%; and rounding out the top five
is Software Development, selected by
13.1%. The only other item selected by
at least 10% of the respondents is Cloud
Computing, at sixth with 11.6%.
Looking over this year’s rankings of the
things that keep senior IT leaders up at
night, they seem about evenly divided
between “keeping the IT lights on” (i.e.,
security, disaster recovery, legacy, and
infrastructure) and “increasing business
capabilities” (i.e., analytics, integration,
software development, innovation, and
ERP). Cloud could be in both categories,
and disruptive technologies could be
seen as in a strategic IT-value proposi-
tion category of its own.
Europe
Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Switzerland
U.K.
Security / Cybersecurity 1 18 1 1 1 14 1 1 5 14 1 1 7 3
Asset Management 2 1 2 6 7 4 12 13 3 3 2 6 8 9
Smart Gadgets (e.g., smart watches/
gadgets)
3 11 3 2 8 15 4 14 21 15 3 3 9 10
Service Management 4 12 7 4 9 25 13 15 6 16 4 2 10 11
Analytics / Business Intelligence 5 19 8 15 10 16 5 2 15 1 5 4 11 4
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) 6 10 9 5 11 8 14 3 16 6 6 7 1 12
Business Process Management Systs 7 2 10 21 2 1 6 16 22 17 7 8 2 13
Social Networking / Media 8 13 11 3 12 26 15 17 23 18 8 5 12 14
Customer/Corporate Portals 9 14 12 12 13 3 16 18 17 7 9 18 3 2
Cloud Computing 10 15 13 13 3 17 17 19 1 19 10 11 4 5
Continuity Planning 11 3 14 16 4 5 18 4 7 20 11 12 13 15
Enterprise Application Management 12 4 15 25 5 2 2 20 24 21 12 29 14 16
Big Data 13 20 16 22 6 18 19 5 8 4 13 13 5 17
Enterprise Resource Planning 14 21 4 7 14 19 20 21 18 22 14 14 15 6
Innovation / Disruptive Technologies 15 5 17 26 15 9 21 6 9 23 15 9 16 18
Table 8.
IT Trend most worrisome
for senior IT leaders -
Europe
(2014 - 2015)

16
Comparing IT
Leadership’s most
worrisome technologies
to the largest technology
investments
As was the case last year, the technolo-
gies that keep senior IT leaders up at
night are different than the largest IT
investments in their organizations3
.
Nevertheless, as indicated in Table 9, the
differences in some ways outweigh the
similarities. This is more than last year.
However, there are still some interest-
ing similarities, with Cloud Computing,
BYOD and Analytics/Business
Intelligence in all three perspectives
in the top ten. These three IT Trends
are important to the organization, gain
significant IT investments and keep the
CIO awake at night.
Some of the other differences include
technologies that may not require a
very large investment but are critical
for keeping the IT lights on, and thus
are fundamental for the credibility,
reputation, and job security of senior IT
leaders. Security is an example of this,
as it ranks as the number one personal
concern with 33.1% selecting it. Other
examples are Smart Gadgets, Social
networking and Service Management.
MostsignificantIT
investment
Org.importantIT
Thingsthatkeep
youupatnight
Security / Cybersecurity 19 22 1
Asset Management 21 4 2
Smart Gadgets (e.g., smart watches/
gadgets)
40 15 3
Service Management 48 10 4
Analytics / Business Intelligence 1 1 5
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) 6 3 6
Business Process Management Systs 23 19 7
Social Networking / Media 26 24 8
Customer/Corporate Portals 13 6 9
Cloud Computing 4 5 10
3
Derksen, Luftman. CIONET report 2014
Table 9.
Comparing Europe’s
most significant IT
investment, organization
important it and keeping
the CIO awake at night

17
“Security issues,
asset management
and smart gadgets
are what keep the
CIO awake most
at night”

18
IT Practices (Organization,
Budgets, Staffing)
The average IT spending as a percent
of revenue in European organizations is
4.8%, which is less than the other global
geographies. The comparison is shown
in Figure 1. Although more depending
on industry than country the countries
(9.27%) Netherlands (7.11%), Luxembourg
(9.06%) and Spain (6.92%) have above
average IT spending.
Finland (4.34%), Germany (1.94%) and
Portugal (3.89%) are below the average.
These differences are the result of the
kind of industries involved within the
countries.
Comparing Europe to the other geog-
raphies (Figure 1) it can be seen that
Europe is more oriented on IT cost
reduction than the other geographies.
Which is similar to the economic state
of Europe in the research period.
Europe is the only geography which is
focusing as much on reduces IT spend-
ing. We do expect to see a turning point
in the near future. Compared to the
other geographies Europe is in ‘catch
up’ regarding IT investments making up
for the lean ‘Great Recession’ years of
2008-2012, when both revenue and IT
investment contracted in most organiza-
tions. The increase in many of the other
geographies (Figure 1) is also being
affected by new investments in cloud,
shared services, digital marketing and
analytics as well as the increasing digiti-
zation of organizations in general.
Global
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Africa Asia Europe North America Latin America Australia
Figure 1.
Percentage of revenue
allocated to IT budget (2015)
470
810
580
560
550
920
580
560
940
330
640
610
540
480
390
360
490
500
530
580
1000
630
550
590
560
520
550
4,7%
8,1%
5,8%
5,6%
5,5%
9,27%
5,8%
5,6%
9,38%
3,3%
6,4%
6,1%
5,4%
4,8%
3,9%
3,6%
4,9%
5,0%%
5,3%
5,8%
10,9%
6,3%
5,5%
5,9%
5,6%
5,2%
5,5%

Centralized
Decentralized
Federated / Hybrid
Matrixed
Networked
19
IT organization structure
Within the surveyed European coun-
tries the most popular organization
structure (Figure 2) identified by 48%
of the respondents is decentralized,
followed by centralized with 34%,
and federated with 14%. Globally the
centralized IT organizational structure
is the most popular (69%), followed
by federated (14%), and decentralized
(12%). A possible explanation for this
difference is likely the European de-
centralized usage of new technologies.
Quite often business units do tend to
invest in IT that they require within their
own function. This might also explain
the lower IT spending (hidden IT costs)
as discussed in the previous section.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
290+570+140=
400+200+400=
530+130+200+70+70=
200+600+200=
90+820+90=
80+670+170+80=
500+330+170=
130+800+70=
500+170+330=
140+710+140=
610+40+300+40=
130+800+70=
630+130+250=
29% 57% 14%
40% 20% 40%
53% 13% 20% 7% 7%
20% 60% 20%
9% 82% 9%
8% 67% 17% 8%
50% 33% 17%
13% 80% 7%
50% 17% 33%
14% 71% 14%
61% 4% 30% 4%
13% 80% 7%
63% 13% 25%
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Norway
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
Figure 2.
IT Organization Structure
– Europe

0%
Figure 3.
Global organization structure
2006-2014
20
The IT organizational structure tends to
change over years globally, as can be
seen in Figure 3. This year globally both
the centralized and decentralized IT or-
ganizational structure increased where-
as federated decreased. Often a cen-
tralized IT structure is chosen for cost
reduction reasons whereas the decen-
tralized IT structure is chosen customer
focus and flexibility. Large changes to
the IT organization structure is com-
plex, time consuming, and costly. Thus
structure change is not something most
organizations do frequently, take lightly,
or do simply because it is fashionable,
lending credence to the demonstrable
value of a federated structure which can
facilitate minor changes more readily.
Overall, Figure 3 suggests that while
IT is centralized in most organizations,
there is a slow-moving trend toward
more decentralized IT structures and
fewer centralized ones. Time will tell
whether that is in fact the case, or if
that trend has begun to reverse. On the
other hand, this distinction between
centralized and decentralized/federated
IT organization structures (as shown in
Figure 3) may be blurring, as IT govern-
ance becomes more federated and IT
delivery becomes more centralized.
That is a matter to explore in future IT
Trends Studies.
200
280
340
250
300
180
220
180
150
120
100
50
90
20
100
90
20
110
690
620
620
660
680
720
690
770
740
20%
28%
34%
25%
30%
18%
22%
18%
15%
12%
10%
5%
9%
2%
10%
9%
2%
11%
69%
62%
62%
66%
68%
72%
69%
77%
74%
20%
40%
80%
60%
Federated / Hybrid Decentralized Centralized
“There is a clear
trend towards
decentralised IT
structures”

Figure 4.
Change in IT budget from
previous year (2004-2015)
Increase
No change
Decrease
21
610=
180=
210=
470=
280=
250=
270=
220=
510=
340=
300=
360=
550=
270=
180=
400=
350=
260=
530=
210=
260=
560=
200=
240=
450=
300=
250=
61%
18%
21%
47%
28%
25%
27%
22%
51%
34%
30%
36%
55%
27%
18%
40%
35%
26%
53%
21%
26%
56%
20%
24%
45%
30%
25%
IT budgets and Staffing
Trends
Economic conditions have had a
significant impact on IT budgets. As
indicated in Figure 4, prior to the ‘great
recession’ (2004-2008), the major-
ity of global organizations reported
increasing IT budgets. However, as the
economy slowed in 2008 only 47% of
respondents reported an increase in
IT budgets; and in 2009 only 27% of
organizations reported increases, with
73% of the respondents indicating that
their IT budgets had remained flat or
decreased. Things tentatively improved
in 2010 with 36% reporting increases,
but 64% still indicated flat or decreasing
IT budgets from the prior year.
In 2011 the trend improved further
with 55% of the respondents report-
ing increasing IT budgets, 27% flat, and
only18% decreasing (a bit more than
half of the 2010 rate of decreases). The
percent of organizations reporting in-
creases pulled back in 2012 with nearly
40% of organizations seeing budget
increases and 20% decreases. In last
year’s IT Trends Study, 56% of the re-
spondents reported increasing budgets,
and respondents accurately forecast a
slight increase for this year.
This year the number of organizations
reporting IT budget increases is 56%, up
from 53%, but still not above the 2007
high of 61%. Organizations with budget
allocations remaining flat are a bit lower
(20%), while decreasing budgets are
down from 26% to 24%. However, when
asked to project next year’s IT spending,
the outlook is more pessimistic. Only
45% of organizations expect to have an
IT budget increase in 2015. This repre-
sents almost a 20% decline in the num-
ber of organization’s currently reporting
budgetary increases. Moreover, 30%
(50% more than this year) are project-
ing flat budgets, and 25% anticipate a
decrease in IT spending (about 4% more
than in 2014). This could be a signal of
further economic uncertainty, and likely
an anticipated overall weakening in the
global economy, or perhaps the end of
the ‘catch up’ period in IT investments
making up for the lean investment years
early in the recession.
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

2014 > 2013
2014 = 2013
2014 < 2013
2015 > 2014
2015 = 2014
2015 < 2014
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
Figure 6.
Change in IT budget
from previous year
(2015 compared to
2014) in Europe
Figure 5.
Change in IT budget
from previous year
(2014 compared to
2013) in Europe
22
European IT budgets
developments
29% of the European organizations
reported an IT budget decrease in the
2014 budget (see Figure 4). This per-
centage is highest of all continents
(North America 24%, Australia 20%,
Africa 11% and Asia 3%). Also the per-
centage of European organizations
reporting a flat IT budget in 2014 in
comparison with 2013 was highest of
all continents with 42%. The number of
European organizations reporting an
increased IT budget was lowest of all
continents with 30%.
Within Europe (Figure 5), 14% of the UK
organizations reported an increased
2014 IT budget, lowest within Europe. In
Portugal and the Netherlands just 24%
of the organizations reported an in-
creased IT budget. Austria and Germany
are at the other end of the scale with
60% and 54% of the organizations
reporting an increased IT budget. Only
7.7% of the German organizations re-
ported a decreased IT budget in 2014.
When comparing the forecasted chang-
es in IT budget with regard to 2015,
the European countries are slightly
more positive (see Figure 6). 79% of the
European organizations anticipate an
increased or flat IT budget in compari-
son to 72% in 2014. 21% of the European
organizations reported a decreased IT
budget, whereas 29% of the European
organizations reported a decreased IT
budget in 2014.
German organizations are most positive
with 60% of the organizations report-
ing an increased IT budget over 2015.
60% of the IT budgets of organizations
in Austria report a flat IT budget in 2015.
43% of the organizations in Switzerland
report an expected decreased IT budget
in 2015.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
300+420+290=
140+290+570=
310+330+360=
310+330+360=
240+410+340=
240+520+240=
290+530+180=
440+330+220=
540+380+80=
360+290+360=
260+350+390=
290+380+330=
600+200+200=
30% 42% 29%
14% 29% 57%
31% 33% 36%
31% 33% 36%
24% 41% 34%
24% 52% 24%
29% 53% 18%
44% 33% 22%
54% 38% 8%
36% 29% 36%
26% 35% 39%
29% 38% 33%
60% 20% 20%
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
310+480+210=
360+550+90=
140+430+430=
400+450+150=
280+590+140=
290+430+290=
350+590+60=
330+390+280=
600+200+200=
310+380+310=
260+480+260=
170+460+380=
200+600+200=
31% 48% 21%
36% 55% 9%
14% 43% 43%
40% 45% 15%
28% 59% 14%
29% 43% 29%
35% 59% 6%
33% 39% 28%
60% 20% 20%
31% 38% 31%
26% 48% 26%
17% 46% 38%
20% 60% 20%

23
IT budget allocations
Since 2009, when these Global IT Trend
Study first began gathering IT budget-
ary data, the survey focused on two
major categories: people and things.
These two categories were further
subdivided into In-House, Outsourced,
and Foreign and Domestic spending.
In Table 10 both Europe (2014 & 2015)
and the Global figures (2009-2015) are
provided.
The internal staff-domestic spending is
19.7% of the European IT organizational
budget. The surveyed organizations
predict a decrease to 17.9%, whereas
the anticipated global budget allocation
for internal staff-domestic increases
from 17.1% in 2014 to 19.5% in 2015.
Considering the internal staff offshore,
the trend to increase in Europe and
globally. Interestingly the trend for
domestic outsourcing (within the con-
tinent) shows a flat budget allocation
within Europe (12%) in the years 2014 to
2015, whereas the global trend shows
a significant decrease of allocated IT
budget to outsourced services domes-
tic (from 16.9% to 6.8%) with regard to
people services. Spending on consulting
services shows a decrease in Europe
and globally.
Considering the spending on ‘things’,
the global and European trend is de-
creasing for in house-domestic expens-
es. At the same time, in-house offshore
increased globally from 5.4% to 11.9%
whereas within Europe the trend is less
significant with 6.9% in 2014 compared
with 7.3% in 2015. Both Global and
Europe show a significant increase in
outsourced things both domestic and
offshore.
IT Budget Area
2015projected
Europe
2014ActualEurope
2015projected
Global
2014ActualGlobal
2013Global
2012Global
2011Global
2010Global
2009Global
AVERAGE:
PEOPLEV.THINGS
PEOPLE
Employees / Internal Staff:
Domestic
17,9% 19,7% 19,5% 17,1% 30,4% 21,0% 31,0% 43,0% 39,0%
Offshore 11,4% 10,3% 10,9% 9,9% 4,2% 11,0% 5,0% 3,0% 4,0%
Outsourced Services/
Contractors: Domestic
12,0% 12,0% 6,8% 16,9% 8,7% 10,0% 9,0% 7,0% 8,0%
Offshore 9,8% 9,3% 7,1% 10,5% 3,9% 8,0% 3,0% 5,0% 4,0%
Consulting Services 5,6% 6,1% 6,1% 6,6% 7,2% 10,0% 11,0% 10,0% 12,0%
TOTAL People 56,8% 57,4% 50,4% 61,0% 54,4% 60,0% 59,0% 68,0% 67,0% 59,2%
THINGS: HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, FACILITIES
In-house - domestic 16,4% 18,7% 12,7% 15,9% 28,3% 22,0% 30,1% 32,0% 33,0%
In-house – offshore 7,3% 6,9% 11,9% 5,4% 3,7% 2,0%
Outsourced - domestic 11,2% 9,6% 12,8% 7,3% 10,5% 13,0% 10,9%
Outsourced - offshore 8,3% 7,3% 12,2% 10,4% 3,2% 3,0%
Total Things 43,2% 42,6% 49,6% 39,0% 45,6% 40,0% 41,0% 32,0% 33,0% 40,8%
Table 10.
IT budget allocations
Europe & Global

Figure 8.
Total in house IT
staff size in Europe
Figure 7.
Percentage
of company’s
personnel is IT (%)
2014 > 2013
2014 = 2013
2014 < 2013
24
IT staffing and salary
trends
To provide greater insight into the
IT personnel practices, IT staffing is
another area that was refined and
expanded considerably in this year’s IT
Trend Study.
IT staffing as percentage of the total
company’s personnel differs between
the European countries as displayed
in Figure 9. On average more than six
percent of the total staff within the or-
ganization is IT staff in Belgium (7.16%),
Luxembourg (8.15%), the Netherlands
(6.72%), Portugal (7.78%), and UK
(8.60%). In Italy (2.29%), Macedonia (2%),
and Norway (2.33%) the percentage of
total staff being IT personnel is below
three percent.
Interesting are the changes in IT staff-
ing. These changes in previous year are
displayed in Figure 8.
When comparing Figures 7 and 8, the
decrease in IT staff looks on aver-
age to be higher in countries’ with a
higher percentage IT staff compared
to total staff. Within Belgium, Finland,
Luxembourg and Switzerland the IT staff
decreased more than in other countries.
In Germany 50% of the organizations
reported an increase in IT staff followed
by Norway with 45% of the organiza-
tions reporting an increase in IT staff.
In Austria 75% of the organizations
reported a flat number of IT staff in 2014
compared to 2013.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
270+430+300=
250+500+250=
700+200+100=
160+610+240=
260+480+260=
100+450+450=
280+480+240=
360+360+290=
330+330+330=
40+460+500=
210+360+430=
480+240+280=
440+160+400=
60+750+190=
27% 43% 30%
25% 50% 25%
70% 20% 10%
16% 61% 24%
26% 48% 26%
10% 45% 45%
28% 48% 24%
36% 36% 29%
33% 33% 33%
4% 46% 50%
21% 36% 43%
48% 24% 28%
44% 16% 40%
6% 75% 19%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
558=
860=
600=
778=
550=
360=
233=
672=
200=
815=
229=
300=
346=
592=
447=
716=
359=
5,58
8,60
6,00
7,78
5,50
3,60
2,33
6,72
2,00
8,15
2,29
3,00
3,46
5,92
4,47
7,16
3,59
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Poland
Norway
Netherlands
Macedonia
Luxembourg
Italy
Iceland
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Norway
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria

25
IT employees and their
salaries
To provide greater insight into IT per-
sonnel practices, IT employees and their
salaries was expanded considerably in
this year’s IT Trend Study. The salary
changes in 2014 compared with 2013 by
country are displayed in Figure 9.
In Europe 68% of the organizations
reported a decrease (22%) or flat (46%)
total salaries for IT staff in 2014 com-
pared to 2013. Only 32% of the organi-
zations reported an increase in the total
salaries for IT staff. Within Europe, 57%
of the organizations in Luxembourg
reported increased total salaries in 2014
compared to 2013. At the other end of
the spectrum, only 15% of the organiza-
tions in Portugal reported an increase
in total salaries. In Spain 38% of the or-
ganizations reported a decrease in total
salaries for IT staff in 2014 compared to
2013. The lowest decrease is reported
by United Kingdom (9%) and Germany
(10%). Both UK and Germany expect a
higher decrease of total IT salaries in
2015 (Figure 10).
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
220+460+320=
90+450+450=
140+570+290=
380+380+230=
260+590+150=
260+480+260=
210+210+570=
140+520+330=
100+600+300=
140+360+500=
240+390+360=
240+440+320=
130+530+330=
22% 46% 32%
9% 45% 45%
14% 57% 29%
38% 38% 23%
26% 59% 15%
26% 48% 26%
21% 21% 57%
14% 52% 33%
10% 60% 30%
14% 36% 50%
24% 39% 36%
24% 44% 32%
13% 53% 33%
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
Figure 9.
Total salaries for
IT staff in 2014
compared to 2013
2014 > 2013
2014 = 2013
2014 < 2013

Figure 10.
Total salaries for IT staff in
2015 compared to 2014
(projected)
2015 > 2014
2015 = 2014
2015 < 2014
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
26
IT Skills
A pervasive and persistent complaint
from IT leaders are that their people
do not have the right competencies
and that they have job openings but
cannot find people with the right skills.
As previously presented, the advent of
SMAC technologies is having a signifi-
cant impact on enterprises around the
globe. These changes are driving com-
mensurate changes in ITs role and the
demand for qualified IT professionals
at all levels with an appropriate balance
of technical, management, leadership,
industry, and interpersonal skills. They
differ across geographies based on the
respective degree of importance placed
on introducing many of the required
changes, albeit are rather homogenous
across Europe.
The global top five skills identified for
mid-level hires are:
1. collaboration/teamwork - North
America and Latin America were
ranked as number 1; where Asia was
5th, Europe 6th; Australia 14th, and
Africa 20th.
2. business analysis - was ranked 2nd
by Australia, 3rd by Europe, 4th by
Asia, 7th by North America, 7th by
Africa, and 31st by Latin America.
3. technology architecture - Africa
and Asia ranked it number one,
where Europe has it 5th, Australia
11th, Latin America 14th, and North
America 18th.
4. user relationships - Europe has it
ranked 1st, Africa 4th, Asia 14th,
Australia 15th, North America 19th,
Latin America 32nd.
5. oral communications - was ranked
2nd in Latin America, 5th in North
America, 8th in Asia, 14th in Europe,
and 16th in Australia.
Rounding out the top ten skills for mid-
level candidates are change manage-
ment, functional area (industry) knowl-
edge, people/relationship management,
accounting/finance, and problem
solving.
200+510+290=
130+500+380=
200+400+400=
230+360+410=
40+850+120=
130+580+290=
70+360+570=
200+700+100=
290+290+430=
230+380+380=
210+550+240=
250+380+380=
640+290+70=
20% 51% 29%
13% 50% 38%
20% 40% 40%
23% 36% 41%
4% 85% 12%
13% 58% 29%
7% 36% 57%
20% 70% 10%
29% 29% 43%
23% 38% 38%
21% 55% 24%
25% 38% 38%
64% 29% 7%
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
The global top five skills identified for
entry-level hires are:
1. technical knowledge - was ranked
1st by every geography except Asia
where it was ranked 2nd.
2. problem solving - was ranked 2nd
by Europe, 3rd by North America,
4th by Latin America and Africa, and
5th by Asia and Australia.
3. collaboration/teamwork - was
ranked 2nd by North America and
Latin America, 4th by Australia, 9th
by Asia, 10th by Europe, and 18th
by Africa
4. functional area/industry knowledge
– was ranked 3rd by Asia, Europe,
and Latin America, 4th by North
America, and 5th by Africa.
5. technology architecture - was
ranked 1st by Asia, 2nd by Africa, 8th
by Europe, 13th by Australia, 15th
by North America, and 17th by Latin
America.
Rounding out the top ten skills for
entry-level candidates are business
analysis, oral communications, user
relationship management, systems
analysis/design, and analytics/statistics.
The CIO skills are discussed in the sec-
tion on The Future of IT.
About 64% of the organizations in
Austria report an expectation to have
lower total salaries for IT staff in 2015
which is significantly different from
other European countries’. This is con-
sistent with the expectation of organi-
zations in Austria for flat or decreased
IT budgets at 80% of the organizations
reported (Figure 7).

Figure 11.
IT staff turnover
rate 2014
27
1000=
392=
309=
365=
550=
387=
325=
700=
157=
464=
300=
617=
414=
10,17
3,92
3,09
3,65
5,50
3,87
3,25
7,00
1,57
4,64
1,300
6,17
4,14
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
Turnover and
Retirements, education
and training
Last year we saw a significant decrease
in the IT turnover rate over 2013 within
Europe (from 4.7% to 3.8%). Globally
there was an increase in the IT turnover
rate. This research year the European
turnover rate increased to 4.14%. In
Figure 11, the turnover rate of European
countries are displayed.
The European IT staff turnover rate is
below the global average of 6.17% in
the same research year. On average in
the research period 2006 - 2014 the
average is 5.97% for the global IT staff
turnover rate.
Consistent with previous years, the
European organizations report a low
percentage of IT budget allocated for
education/training (Figure 12). Africa
and Australia also reported a low per-
centage of IT budget allocated for edu-
cation and training. European organi-
zations reserved 2.12% of the total IT
budget for training and education, 34%
less than the global average of 3.23% of
the total IT budget and even 46% less
than North American organizations.
This is further illustrated by the strong IT
management education activity by the
Global Institute for IT Management in
Asia, Latin America, and North America.

Figure 12.
Percentage of IT budget
allocation for education/
training
28
Africa
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
2009 2010 2011
2012 2013 2014
Asia Europe North America Latin America Australia Global
235
210
434
665
302
265
234
220
334
212
270
344
323
287
468
395
210
434
665
667
210
434
665
125
309
452
792
338
487
323
4,52%
Avg. of yearly
averages
“European
organisations
reserve 2,1% of IT
budget for training
and education,
versus 3,2%
worldwide”

Figure 13.
CIO tenure across the continents
These responses provide insights into
what the IT organization is doing and
how it is performing and interacting
with the business. To better understand
the role and activities of IT leaders in
organizations, we turn to the data set
consisting of the people who respond-
ed they are the ‘top IT person (e.g., the
CIO)’ in their organizations. Hereafter
we will refer to them as the ‘top IT
executive’ or the ‘CIO’.
CIO Tenure
The average time the CIOs have been
in their current position decreased this
year by 20% globally from last year,
from 5.8 to 4.6 years (see Figure 13). In
Europe the CIO Tenure decreased by
almost 4% from 5.4 to 5.2 years. The
average tenure since 2006 is 4.7 years,
down from last year’s average of 4.77.
Overall, CIO tenure appears to be on
an upward trend over the last decade
with a significant breaking point this
year. The overall trend is confirmed by
other studies; although, CIO job tenure
varies across studies4
. The respondents
in this year’s study reported lower CIO
tenure than in the last two years (twice
5.8 years). The median CIO job tenure
decreased to two years, especially due
to Asia. Within Europe the highest num-
ber of CIOs with over ten years in their
current job is 71 CIOs in this survey. The
European CIOs tenure is 5.2 years.
In terms of distribution, it is worth not-
ing that nearly half of the CIOs have
been in their current position for less
than three years. On the other hand
over ten percent of the CIOs have been
in their current position for ten years or
more.
Within Europe there are significant
differences between the responding
countries (see Figure 14). In Austria the
CIO Tenure is only 1.59 years, whereas
Norway the CIO tenure is 9.5 years. UK,
Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and
Finland are rather close to the European
average.
CIO reporting relationships, time
allocation, background, tenure and
performance measurement
4
As of July 2014 http://www.ejobdescription.com/
IT_salary_survey.html reports CIO tenure at 4.33
years. In January 2014 CIO magazine reported it at
5.92 years. http://fedscoop.comsurvey-2014-brings-
challenges-wind-shift-cios/.
0%
2%
4%
6%
580
580
460
270
451
430
190
599
540
520
600
520
530
644
690
550
451
430
680
Africa Asia Europe North
America
Latin
America
AustraliaGlobal
Figure 14.
IT staff turnover
rate 2014
520=
489=
200=
187=
674=
950=
433=
493=
680=
174=
573=
624=
754=
159=
5,20
4,89
2,00
1,87
6,74
9,50
4,33
4,93
6,80
1,74
5,73
6,24
7,54
1,59
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Norway
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
5,8
5,8
4,6
2,7
4,51
4,3
1,9
5,99
5,4
5,2
6
5,2
5,3
6,44
6,9
5,5
4,51
4,3
6,8
4,7%
Avg. of yearly
averages

CEO/President
CFO
COO
Business Unit Executive
Board of Directors
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
400+250+190+70+90=
180+450+270+0+90=
410+180+180+50+170=
560+160+40+120+120=
290+280+110+40+280=
650+140+210=
500+250+150+50+50=
250+500+250=
460+230+80+80+150=
260+130+300+300=
670+130+130+80=
500+500=
40% 25% 19% 7% 9%
18% 45% 27% 9%
41% 18% 18% 5% 17%
56% 16% 4% 12% 12%
29% 28% 11% 4% 28%
65% 14% 21%
50% 25% 15% 5% 5%
25% 50% 25%
46% 23% 8% 8% 15%
26% 13% 30% 30%
67% 13% 13% 8%
50% 50%
Europe
U.K.
Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
Figure 15.
Reporting line CIOs
31
CIO Reporting
Relationship
The role of the CIO is often thought to
be shaped by to whom they report; al-
though it is unclear to what extend and
in what way formal reporting relation-
ships are related to CIO focus and job
activities5, Luftman alignment maturity
research has found that organizations
where the CIO reports to the CEO
outperform their competitors. Within
Europe, just over 40% of the respond-
ing top IT executives report directly to
their CEO (globally about 39%), a fourth
(25%) report directly to their CFO (27%
globally), and about 19% of CIOs report
to their organization’s COO (28.5%
Globally) (see Figures 15 and 16).
As for the CIO tenure the report-
ing structure differs significantly by
European country. In Luxembourg 64%
of the CIOs report directly to the CEO,
where in Belgium it is 67%. In the United
Kingdom it is only 18%.
Interestingly in the Netherlands 29%
of CIOs report to the CEO and 29% to
the Board of Directors. However, their
alignment maturity is only 2.53 out of a
maximum 5. The Global 1,000 compa-
nies average alignment level is at 3.11,
and 35.6% of the CIOs report directly to
the CEO and only 6.1% to the Board of
Directors.
From a global perspective a trend line as
shown in Figure 16, suggests that there
is a slow moving trend of an increas-
ing percentage of CIOs not reporting to
CEOs and CFOs but to the COO. Other
studies show increases for CIOs report-
ing to CEOs6, but such trends, if present,
do not appear particularly strong except
for the decrease in direct reporting to the
CEO. The percentage of CIOs directly
reporting to the CEO decreased from
nearly 60% in 2011 to below 40% in 2014.
5
Plante & Bain (2005), “The Changing Role of the
CIO: Why IT Still Matters,” IT Professional, 7(3),
45-49 and Smaltz, Sambamurthy, & Agarwal (2006),
“The Antecedents of CIO Role Effectiveness in
Organizations: An Empirical Study in the Healthcare
Sector,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering
Management, 53(2), 207-222 found CIO reporting
relationships to be unrelated to CIO job activities;
however, Carter, Grover, & Bennett (2011), “The
Emerging CIO Role of Business Technology
Strategist,” MIS Quarterly Executive, 10(1), 19-29 did
find a relationship between to whom CIOs report and
the focus and activities of CIOs.
6
CIO magazine’s ‘State of the CIO 2014’, Kim Nash
reports that ’44 percent of the CIOs report to the
CEO, up from 39% last year’, http://www.cio.com/
article/2380234/cio-role/state-of-the-cio-2014-
the-great-schism.html.

Figure 16.
CIOs report to,
2005-2014 (global)
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
420+160+140+280=
0+0+330+670=
500+0+500=
450+150+400=
1000=
100+300+100+500=
200+0+200+600=
400+0+0+600=
1000=
250+750=
410+410+50+140=
1000=
1000=
42% 16% 14% 28%
33% 67%
50% 50%
45% 15% 40%
100%
10% 30% 10% 50%
20% 20% 60%
40% 60%
100%
25% 75%
41% 41% 5% 14%
100%
100%
Europe
U.K.
Switzerland
Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Italy
Germany
France
Finland
Belgium
Austria
Figure 17.
CIO prior employment,
Europe 2014
IT, same organization
IT, outside organization
non-IT, same organization
non-IT, outside organization
32
CIO Previous
Employment
CIOs responded to this question
regarding their prior position before
becoming the top IT executive in their
current organizations. Most CIOs still
come from a prior IT position (58% in
Europe, 79% globally); but this is down
this year from the 92% in 2010 and 2011
to 79% in 2014.
Within Europe (Figure 17) significant
differences can be found by country.
Within Germany and Austria 100%
of the surveyed CIOs came from an
internal IT organization. Finland (41%),
Netherlands (30%) and Spain (15%) hired
the CIO from an external IT company.
Also interestingly, within Europe 28%
of the CIOs came from outside the
company from a non IT function; the
highest globally (Africa 17%, Asia 8%,
North America 7%, Latin America 24%
and Australia 13%). More significantly,
this appears to be an important change
in the organization from where CIOs
are hired.
CEO
CFO
COO
SBU
THIS LOOKS LIKE A TREND
THIS LOOKS LIKE A TREND
THIS COULD BE A TREND
60%
50%

IT, same
organization
IT, outside
organization
non-IT, same
organization
non-IT, outside
organization
33
Globally it also appears that more CIOs
are being hired from non-IT positions,
at 21% this year, up from 18% last year
and above the five-year average of 15%
(see Figure 18).
Bottom line, 58% of CIOs came from
another company, 35% were promoted
from within, 79% came directly from a
prior role in IT, and 21% were hired from
a prior non-IT role. As Figure 18 indi-
cates, over the past several years there
has been a significant increase in CIOs
being hired from outside their current
employer, and a commensurate de-
crease in those being promoted to CIO
from within, regardless of whether they
were in a prior IT position or not.
0%
Figure 18.
Global last position before
CIO or equivalent
(2010 to 2014)
350
360
330
310
380
440
460
470
610
540
70
50
120
40
40
140
130
80
30
40
35%
36%
33%
31%
38%
20%
40%
80%
60%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
44%
46%
47%
61%
54%
7%
5%
12%
4%
4%
14%
13%
8%
3%
4%

34
Performance
Measurements for CIOs
The investigation of IT performance
metrics was added to the IT Trends
Study in 2012 to gain a better under-
standing of how IT is being assessed
and measured. This year respondents
were provided a list of 32 metrics (up
from only 14 last year) and asked to
separately “select up to three (3) of your
organization’s most important perfor-
mance measures for: internal IT, out-
sourced IT, and your own performance.”
The personal performance question was
added this year for the first time.
Table 11 shows the percent of the
organizations selecting each metric
in the category internal IT metrics per
geography. The Table is sorted by the
rankings of the global internal IT perfor-
mance measures used most. No trend
can be discerned, of course, since this
is the first time these CIO most used
internal performance measures data are
available; nevertheless, some important
findings are in evidence.
Examining the CIOs’ top 10 most
selected performance measures, as
shown in Table 11, notice that only three
focus on IT, while the other seven are
business focused. Equally, if not more
important, four of these top 10 are
strategic, including three of the top four,
as well as the top three: “Value of IT to
the business” (selected by over 40%).
The others are: Innovative/new ideas
(ranked 6th), Business cost reduction/
control (7th) and workforce reduction
(9th). Since performance measurements
are tied to incentives and deliverables,
this points to the current overall strate-
gic and business focus of these CIOs, a
good thing indeed.
Rounding out the top five for CIOs
are second ranked “User satisfac-
tion”, “Value of IT to the business” (at
third), fourth ranked “Satisfaction of
internal IT customers”, and number
one “Availability,” which is one of two
IT-focused performance measure to
appear in the top five for CIOs, selected
by the respondents. Moreover, although
the performance of the IT organization
is still important to their overall evalu-
ation, with five IT-centric performance
measures in their top 10, it appears the
CIOs are increasingly evaluated on their
overall contribution to the organization.
Nevertheless, the performance met-
rics for CIOs and in-house IT do have
a lot in common with “Innovative new
ideas” (ranked 6th by the CIOs) and
“Value of IT to the business” (ranked
3rd). Nevertheless, with two of Internal
IT’s top six performance measures
focused on the business, and half of
their top 10 IT focused, it is clear that
alignment of IT and business is alive
and well. As might also be expected,
Outsourced IT is more about keeping
the IT lights on than Internal IT, with
their top five metrics all IT focused
(not in this table). CIOs share only one
performance measure in their top five
with Outsourced IT – “Availability.” They
do share six in their top 10, however,
which is also indicative of an alignment.
Similarly, Internal and Outsourced IT
share seven measures in their top 10
lists.

35
Global
Africa
Asia
Europe
NorthAmerica
LatinAmerica
Australia
Availability (Up time) 1 20 13 1 1 2 28
Customer satisfaction (internal IT customers) 2 4 3 11 2 1 5
Value of IT to the business 3 28 31 3 4 12 8
Satisfaction of internal IT customers
(e.g., portals, social, mobile)
4 21 26 9 3 14 32
Projects delivered on time 5 22 25 5 5 4 29
Innovative / new ideas 6 29 14 2 16 7 3
Help-desk performance 7 8 8 18 6 3 18
Business cost reduction/control 8 5 4 12 11 6 6
Workforce reduction 9 1 1 19 24 18 15
Projects delivered on budget 10 6 19 7 8 24 16
Productivity improvement 11 12 16 21 7 5 10
SLA target compliance 12 23 27 15 19 8 1
Employee attrition / retention / turnover 13 7 9 4 18 17 23
Increases in new products / services 14 13 2 26 22 15 2
IT cost control 15 24 10 24 9 13 19
IT spending as a % of revenue 16 2 15 20 12 16 17
IT cost / headcount reduction 17 14 5 6 20 21 24
Time to market 18 3 29 16 13 25 9
IT’s contribution to strategy 19 9 21 27 10 9 30
Revenue growth 20 15 30 10 15 26 25
Project return on investment (ROI) 21 10 22 14 17 10 20
Improved decision making 22 30 6 23 21 8 26
Profit / Profit growth 23 16 17 22 25 22 11
Total cost of ownership 24 31 32 25 14 20 21
Lower error rates by users/customers 25 17 23 8 27 19 27
IT spending per employee 26 25 20 13 28 30 7
Industry-specific measurements 27 18 7 17 29 23 22
Quality / defect rates in software 28 11 18 30 23 28 31
Return on equity (ROE) 29 19 28 31 26 31 4
Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) 30 26 11 28 32 27 13
Earnings per share 31 27 12 29 30 25 14
Stock price 32 32 24 32 31 32 12
Table 11.
CIO performance measures
(with internal it metrics used)

Figure 19.
How CIOs spend their time
across geographies (2014)
36
How CIOs spend their
time, with whom, and
what they do with them
The job of the CIO is complex and
evolving. Since 2007, the IT Trends
Study questionnaires have included
questions regarding how CIOs spend
their time. In particular, how much of
their time (the “how much”) they spend
with whom (the “who”) doing which
activities (the “what”). These questions
were expanded last year, and additional
questions added to assess how often
CIOs meet with various other senior
executives (expanding the “who” to
be more specific and adding the “how
often”). Questions were also added to
determine to what extent CIOs believe
those C-level relationships contribute
to the value of IT to the organization
(the “how valuable”). This year, these
questions were further expanded and
improved, with the “who” and “what”
being separated for the first time, and
both those lists expanded significantly.
These improvements, and the inclusion
of all five of these dimensions (specifi-
cally, how much, with whom, doing
what, how often, and how valuable),
significantly increase our ability to
understand and track changes in the
multifaceted role of the CIO in these
times of rapid change, albeit, it makes
it difficult to draw comparisons from
previous years.
The results are shown in Table 12. Not
surprisingly, CIOs report that on aver-
age they spend 8% of their time inter-
acting with IT employees within their
organization. CIOs spend over 26% of
their time interacting with non-IT peo-
ple within their organization (13% with
C-level, 13% with non-IT non-C-level),
indicating a significant focus on the
overall business.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
100+90+130+120+130+100+100+90+100+50=
140+110+80+90+90+130+70+90+100+100=
100+50+70+130+210+160+70+20+180+10=
120+90+170+130+110+80+100+70+70+50=
80+110+90+90+90+60+100+80+160+140=
80+100+100+90+150+110+60+80+160+70=
110+110+150+120+120+80+100+70+100+50=
10% 9% 13% 12% 13% 10% 10% 9% 10% 5%
14% 11% 8% 9% 9% 13% 7% 9% 10% 10%
10% 5% 7% 13% 21% 16% 7% 2% 18% 1%
12% 9% 17% 13% 11% 8% 10% 7% 7% 5%
8% 11% 9% 9% 9% 6% 10% 8% 16% 14%
8% 10% 10% 9% 15% 11% 6% 8% 16% 7%
11% 11% 15% 12% 12% 8% 10% 7% 10% 5%
Australia
Latin America
North America
Europe
Asia
Africa
Global
Architecture
IT Governance
IT operations
HR
Relationship with Business
In Europe breakdown is in Figure 19. IT
operations takes 17% of the CIO time,
the highest of all geographies whereas
“relationship with business” is almost
half of the percent (11%) of the North
American CIOs (21%). Considering the
earlier alignment discussion, additional
focus on business relationships could
be recommended.
The interaction of CIOs with other
C-level in Europe is in Figure 20. Almost
twenty percent of the CIOs (19.8%)
in Europe interact with the CEO on a
monthly basis, 17.8% on a weekly basis
and 13.9% more than once a week. Over
51% of the CIOs talks to CEO at least
monthly (53.5%). The interaction with
the CFO in Europe is higher at 58.6%
indicating at least monthly with the
CFO. But the most interaction is with
the COO, with almost 65% of the CIOs
interacting at least monthly.
Relationship with IT staff
Relationship with Vendors
Software Development
Strategy
Other

Table 12.
How CIOs spend their time (global)
Figure 20.
CIO interaction with c-level (Europe)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
117+21+11+85+117+138+64+160+202+85=
169+34+11+236+146+135+67+79+101+22=
10+30+20+182+172+141+91+141+162+51=
40+40+30+158+198+89+79+178+139+50=
11,7 2,1 1,1 8,5 11,7 13,8 6,4 16,0 20,2 8,5
16,9 3,4 1,1 23,6 14,6 13,5 6,7 7,9 10,1 2,2
1 3 2 18,2 17,2 14,1 9,1 14,1 16,2 5,1
4 4 3 15,8 19,8 8,9 7,9 17,8 13,9 5
COO
CMO
CFO
CEO
No interaction
Less than once a year
Once a year
Less than once per month
Once a month
More than once a month
Less than once a week
Once a week
More than once a week
At least daily
37
2014 Categories CIO or
Equivalent
Previous years (global):
How CIOs spend their time
2007-2012
Categories
2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007
IT priorities/strategy 10% 12.7% 10.0% 13.0% 13.0% 15.0% 17.0% 16.0% Strategy
Business priorities/
strategy
10% 10.9%
Interacting w/ inter-
nal IT employees
8% 11.9% 11.0% 5.0% 11.0% 12.0% 15.0% 13.0% Relationship mgmnt
w/ IT staff
Interacting w/ non-
IT non C-Level
13% 10.1%
IT Operations 16% 10.7% 12.0% 15.0% 13.0% 15.0% 8.0% 8.0% Operations
Interacting w/ non-
IT C-level
w/ business
Interacting with IT.
non employees
w/ vendors
IT governance 11% 8.7% 10.0% 11.0% 9.0% 10.0% 11.0% 11.0% IT governance
IT Human resources 12% 8.0% 9.0% 15.0% 7.0% 8.0% 7.0% 8.0% Human resources
Software
development
7% 5.3% 7.0% 4.0% 6.0% 6.0% 4.0% 6.0% Software
development
Other 5% 0.9% 9.0% 9.0% 11.0% 10.0% 6.0% 7.0% Non-IT
9.0% 9.0% 7.0% 7.0% 6.0% 8.0% Architecture

38 This year we asked a dozen questions to elicit the perspective
of the future of IT. The Appendix I includes the summary of the
respective global questions and their results. A summary is:
1. 84% of respondents believe that there will be an internal
IT organization in the future. Within Europe 82% of the
responding organizations answered that an internal IT
organization will still be needed.
2. Governance (29%) and demonstrating value (23%) will
provide the most significant changes.
In Europe both ‘Contribution/value to the business (29.8%)
and ‘Organizational reporting’ (26.3%) are considered the
most significant change to IT in the future. With regards
to organizational reporting the combination with Business
Intelligence/Big Data is made (see management con-
cerns/IT Trends in this report). Significant country differ-
ences are:
·· United Kingdom sees Governance/Relationship to
Business as the most significant change to IT in the
future (40% of responding organizations)
·· Switzerland sees Governance/Relationship to Business
as most significant change to IT in the future (50% of
responding organizations)
·· Spain also sees ‘Gaining value from Cloud’ as significant
change to IT in the future (21.9%)
·· Poland sees Governance/Relationship to Business as
most significant change to IT in the future (66.7% of
responding organizations)
·· The Netherlands is most focused on ‘Contribution/value
to the business’, 60.7% of the responding organizations
identified this item as the most significant change to IT
in the future
·· Luxembourg also sees ‘Gaining value from Cloud’ as
significant change to IT in the future (23.1%)
·· Germany ‘Human Resources/Skills/Sourcing’ was
selected by most responding organizations as most
significant change to IT (36.4%)
3. While the skills required for entry-level and mid-level IT
professionals were previously discussed, the skills identi-
fied for CIOs (or head of IT) are described here. Overall,
like with mid-level and entry-level professionals, they
differ across geographies; albeit they have remained
relatively stable over the years, and are consistent across
Europe. The top five skills for CIOs are:
·· leadership - has been and remains the top skill in North
America and Europe; it was ranked 5th in Africa, 11th in
Latin America, 14th in Asia, and 31st in Australia.
·· change management – was ranked 1st in Africa, 2nd in
Latin America, 5th in Asia, 6th in Latin America, 9th in
Australia, and 16th in North America.
·· business analysis – was ranked 2nd in Europe, 5th in
Asia, 65h in Latin America, 7th in Africa, 9th in North
America, and 14th in Australia.
·· budgeting – was ranked 3rd in Latin America, 7th in
Europe, 11th in Asia, 12th in North America, and 13th in
Africa and Australia.
·· oral communications - Asia ranked it 2nd, North
America 5th, Latin America 7th, Europe 9th, Australia
15th, and Africa 29th.
Rounding out the top ten CIO skills were user/relationship
management, accounting/finance, collaboration with oth-
ers, emotional intelligence, and decision making.
Globally 27% of the organizations predict that the future
skills of the CIO will be more business, 42% stated it will
be more business & technical, 19% stated it will be un-
changed and 12% of the responding organizations world-
wide predicted that there will be no CIO (head of IT) in the
future.
Within Europe differences can be found, in Switzerland
100% of the responding organizations stated that more
business & technical skills will be needed with regard
to the future CIOs. This is, partly, confirmed by Spain
(50%), France (50%) and Finland (47.6%). Other countries
within Europe tend to state that there will be no change
needed with regard to the skillset of the future CIOs.
Within Belgium 61.1% predicted skills of future CIO will be
unchanged. This supported by countries such as Portugal
(52.2%) and in lesser extend by Italy (46.7%), Spain (40%)
and Germany (40%).
Within Finland most organizations believe that especially
business skills are added to the future CIO. A number
of organizations do believe that there will not be a CIO
(head of IT) needed in the future. This belief is stronger in
Germany (30% of the responding organizations) and in the
Netherlands (25%).
4. The most effective way to communicate to the business is
via board meetings/presentations (44%).
European countries predict that informal discussions/
meetings are the most effective way to communicate for
CIO. This is stated by 51% of the European responding or-
ganizations which is 64% more than global average (31%).
Future of IT

39Organizations within European countries tend to see
board meeting presentations as a lesser effective way to
communicate for CIOs than other geographies. 22% of
the European organizations see board meeting presenta-
tions as the most effective way to communicate which is
significant lower than other geographies. In Australia 83%
of the organizations state that board meeting presenta-
tions is most effective way to communicate for CIOs,
in Asia 88%, Latin America 34%, North America 34% and
Africa 35% of the organizations.
Also above average is the usage of IT briefings as most ef-
fective way to communicate for CIOs, 9% of the respond-
ing organizations predict this way of communication as
most effective. This is 80% above the global average of 5%
of the responding organizations.
5. The largest increase in developing and maintaining
between Europe and the rest of the geographies exist
with regard to the expectations towards Cloud Service
Providers. Only 10.2% of the European organizations see
Cloud Service Providers as the largest increase in devel-
oping and maintaining whereas other geographies are all
above forty percent (Australia 43%, Latin America 43%,
North America 44%, Asia 42% and Africa at 60%) stating
that Cloud Service Providers will be the largest increase in
developing and maintaining applications.
Within Europe only Finland is the big exception with
50% of the Finish organizations stat that Cloud Service
Suppliers will be the largest increase in developing and
maintaining, five times more than the European average.
Most European countries predict that the largest in-
crease in developing and maintaining will be in COTS
(Commercial Off-The-Shelf) and ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning). The largest indication for COTS are United
Kingdom (50%), Switzerland (50%), Luxembourg (53.8%)
and Italy (31.3%). The largest selection for ERP is support-
ed by Spain (33.3%), Italy (43.8%) and Germany (54.5%).
Outsourced off-shore were largely selected by
Switzerland (50%) and France (53.3%).
6. Globally 36% of the organizations predict that IT applica-
tion development staff primarily will be centralized. Within
Europe this percentage is 26.9%. The centralized IT appli-
cation development staff in the future is mainly predicted
by countries such as United Kingdom (55.6%), Switzerland
(50%), Germany (50%) and Finland (42.9%).
European countries tend to predict a networked IT ap-
plication development staff in the future more than on a
global scale. 45.1% of the European organizations predict
that networked IT application development staff will be
the primarily organization structure whereas globally 27%
of the organizations believe this is true. Within Europe
especially Spain (58.6%), Portugal (61.9%), Italy (66.7%),
France (62.5%) and Belgium (53.3%) foresee the networked
organization structure as the primary structure for future
IT application development staff.
7. The most important skill for the CTO will be knowledge of
applying IT to the business (62%).
Another development is the role of the Chief Technology
Officer (CTO) focusing on turning technology to business
value. Globally 38% of the organizations believe there
will not be a CTO in the future. European surpasses this
percentage with 46.9% of the European organizations.
This percentage is lowest in North America with just 4%
of the organizations stating that there will not be a CTO in
the future.
United Kingdom (50%), Portugal (69.9%), Luxembourg
(61.5%), Italy (58.8%), France (54.4%) and Belgium (77.3%)
state that there will not be a CTO in the future.
The countries where the expectations is that the CTO in
the future will be more technical are the Dutch (46.2%),
where the Finish organizations expect the CTO to be
more business & technical in his/her expertise.
8. When considering the most important skill of the CTO,
63% of the European organizations expect the CTO to
have knowledge of applying IT to the business. This is also
the main expectation on a global scale, supported by 62%
of the world wide organizations.
9. Globally 70% of the researched organizations believe that
the support of IT infrastructure is done by a Cloud service
provider. This percentage is lower within Europe at 62%.
10. The lead executive for data/analytics should report to the
CEO (38%), Applications Executive (29%), or the CIO (23%).
Big Data is a hot topic (see also management concerns/
Trends in IT in this report). European organizations tend
to see applications executives as the chief executive to
report Big Data initiatives to. This is supported by 46% of

40 the European organizations. 37% of the European organi-
zations state the reporting should be directly to the CEO
which is close to the global percentage of 38%. Just 9%
of the European organizations believe that the Big Data
initiatives should be reported to the CIO, which is con-
siderably lower than the global believe of 23% and much
lower than the opinion of Australian companies (38%),
Latin America companies (45%), North America (52%) and
Asia (38%).
11. The most important IT skill for non-IT executives are IT
governance (31%) and IT HR/sourcing/organization (28%).
30% of the European companies support IT governance.
23% of the Europeans forecast that the most important
skill of the non-IT executives will be to identify and imple-
ment trends in leveraging IT, this forecast is lower than the
global average whereas 28% of the organizations forecast
this skill as most important.
12. The most important consideration for a service provider is
reliability/responsiveness (63%).
Interestingly European companies consider more techni-
cal skills/expertise as most important consideration in ser-
vice provider than other geographies. 9% of the European
companies selected technical skills/expertise as the most
important consideration in service provider in the future.

41So what does all of this really mean? In essence:
IT is reshaping global markets while
reshaping itself as it becomes the
business.
While different countries withen Europe have responded
differently, with the enduring economic uncertainties prevail-
ing, and the dramatic changes across every industry being
enabled/driven by IT, organizations are continuing to focus on
leveraging IT to swiftly reduce expenses and, more recently
to increase revenues. SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, and
Cloud) technologies are clearly transforming the industry.
While IT appears to be quite resilient, with IT budgets, hiring,
and salaries on the rise, upon closer analysis, these increases
continue to evolve cautiously. This guarded trend has brought
increased attention to reducing IT budgets through IT infra-
structure spending (especially Cloud) and innovative sourcing
models.
Are we seeing the end of the CIO role and position as we have
known it? We are clearly seeing the role of the CIO and the
overall IT organization undergoing a significant transforma-
tion. It is those organizations and individuals who are best
prepared that will prosper in these exciting times.
There are pundits and blogs espousing that the end of IT is
near. Rather than dispute the existence of IT in the future, the
important question to consider is what will CIOs or indeed IT
will have in the future.
Not only is IT not going away any time soon, the role of IT is
more important than ever. IT is going through a renaissance
that requires the role of the CIO and IT organization, as well
as how the business and IT organizations collaborate, to
transform.
IT has evolved from a group supporting back office processes,
to enabling front office processes, to driving business innova-
tion. IT is moving from an organization focusing on metrics/
SLAs and expenses to analyse itself, to an organization that is
delivering demonstrable business value through cost reduc-
tion, to an organization that is providing distinctive revenue
increases. IT has evolved from having technical initiatives
motivated by pure technology or business desires to being re-
sponsive to customer/client needs. These are significant shifts
from what we have experienced in the past.
These fundamental changes in technology and how they are
applied by the business are shaping the future of IT. Naturally
not all organizations or geographies can respond in the same
way; different scenarios will enable or inhibit these changes;
albeit the data demonstrates that there are more similarities
than differences. In general, organizations need to recognize
that competitive advantage that is facilitated by IT is clearly on
the rise.
IT organizations, with effective leaders have an opportunity
to position themselves at the heart of corporate strategy. The
key to this positioning is the people having the appropriate
balance of technical, business/management, industry, and
interpersonal skills to meet the challenge that lie ahead.
Summary and Conclusions

42
Appendix I: Future of IT Results

39+15+8+6+5+4+4+3+3+3+2+1+1+6+t
44 This research has evolved from the lead
authors coordination of the SIM survey
from 1999-2013. The SIM survey has
been conducted since 1980. Surveys
prior to 2000 focused exclusively on the
top management concerns. Since then,
the survey has been extended to pursue
more specific insights regarding key IT
issues of the day. A significant strength
of this research is in its ability to identify
important trends by comparing survey
data from previous years. Beginning in
2008 the survey has been extended to IT
executives from around the globe.
The 2014 survey was similar to previ-
ous ones in methodology and process.
The questions were based on previous
surveys, with questions modified based
on previous results, and suggestions
from respondents and researchers
(academic and industry). Additionally,
some questions were updated and new
questions were added based on (1) lists
from other similar research, (2) input
from Board members from sponsoring
organizations, and (3) the lead author’s
experience. Additional question were
asked related to the participants view of
the future of IT.
Senior IT executives were invited to take
the online survey. The purpose of this
paper is to provide important interna-
tional insights and trends.
The authors anticipate extending the
reach of this important research to a
more complete set of countries and
geographies, and invite leading re-
searchers with a strong network of IT
executives to contact us.
The authors wish to express their appre-
ciation for the support of Herman van
Bolhuis and Hendrik Deckers (CIONET)
in obtaining the European data.
The European country demograph-
ics for the 801 European organizations
surveyed are below. We hope that the
spread across European countries will
continue to improve.
Most economic sectors and industries
are represented in the figure on the
next page. Differences in representa-
tion can be found in the industries
Food beverages consumer packaged
goods, Telecommunication, Wholesale/
Retail/Trading, Public Sector/Non
Profit, Education, and Auto/Industrial
Manufacturing.
Appendix II: Research Methods, Design, and Demographics
Netherlands
Spain
Finland
Germany
Portugal
Austria
Belgium
Italy
Luxembourg
United Kingdom
France
Poland
Switzerland
Other (<1%):
Norway
Romania
Albania
Sweden
Ukraine
Denmark
Ireland
Iceland
Lithuania
Macedonia
Slovenia

Industry representation (global & Europe) 45
393=
201=
243=
207=
318=
220=
991=
239=
280=
304=
710=
310=
262=
414=
860=
466=
299=
640=
1000=
789=
804=
828=
318=
854=
280=
1000=
1000=
1000=
1000=
1000=
822=
1000=
3,93%
2,01%
2,43%
2,07%
3,18%
2,20%
9,91%
2,39%
2,80%
3,04%
7,10%
3,10%
2,62%
4,14%
8,60%
4,66%
2,99%
6,40%
11,78%
7,89%
8,04%
8,28%
3,18%
8,54%
2,80%
10,22%
11,96%
10,28%
10,47%
10,93%
8,22%
13,84%
Construction
Transportation / warehousing
Chemicals / energy / utilities
Food beverages consumer packaged goods
Pharmaceutical / biotechnology / life sciences
Telecommunication
Media / entertainment / travel and leisure
Wholesale / retail/ trading
Healthcare
Public sector / non profit
Hardware / software / networking
Education
Auto / industrial manufacturing
Aerospace / defense
Business professional services
Financial services / real estate / insurance

46
Jerry Luftman’s experience combines the strengths of prac-
titioner, consultant, and academic. His proficiency in busi-
ness-IT alignment and IT trends, eighteen books, published
research, consulting, mentoring, and teaching/speaking en-
gagements exemplify Dr. Luftman’s expertise and leadership.
After a notable twenty-two year career with IBM, he had an
exemplary career for almost twenty years as Distinguished
Professor, Founder and Associate Dean of the Stevens
Institute of Technology Information Systems Programs; one
of the largest in the world. Driven by the strong demand for
a global executive education program focusing on manag-
ing information technology, Dr. Luftman has leveraged his
experience as a CIO, IT management consultant, and leading
academic, with his strong network prominent IT practitioners
and academics, to provide a valuable and innovative offering
via the Global Institute for IT Management.
Dr Luftman’s project experience ranges from senior manage-
ment issues through tactical implementation. Dr. Luftman
most recently pioneered the vehicle for assessing the maturity
of IT-business alignment; where he has a benchmark reposi-
tory of over one-third of the Global 1,000 companies. He also
serves on the Executive Board of several companies, associa-
tions, and publications.
Dr. Luftman’s last responsibility at IBM, after being a CIO, was
a key speaker at their Customer Executive Conference Center
in Palisades, N.Y. While responsible for management research,
he played a significant role in defining and introducing the IT
Strategy and Planning, and Business Process Re-engineering
practice methods for the IBM Management Consulting Group.
His framework for applying the strategic alignment model is
fundamental in helping clients understand, define, and scope
the appropriate strategic planning approach to pursue. Dr.
Luftman’s annual global IT trends research sponsored by
SIM,CIONET, and other CIO associations is recognized inter-
nationally as an industry barometer.
Barry Derksen’s career includes positions as research scien-
tist, management consulting, senior management, managing
director, director research, manager Architecture & Business
Processes and educator.
Dr.lec. Barry Derksen MSc MMC CISA CGEIT is associate
professor at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, professor at
Novi University of Applied Sciences, research director of the
Business & IT Trends Institute (bitti.nl). He worked as manager
on several organizations and programmes all related on real-
izing business value with IT. As management expert he advised
several large and medium organizations on IT investments
with evidence based research and consultancy (e.g. business
case development / six sigma / etc.).
Barry is speaker and teacher at several Dutch universities and
author of several books. The book ‘Trends in IT, invest in time
in the right technology’ is the bestseller with over 300,000
sold copies. Barry previously worked as senior manager within
KPMG Information Risk Management. With his company BITTI,
he and his colleagues focus on research benchmark, assess-
ment, audit and consultancy / project management. Barry is
also manager of Architecture & Business Processes at Stedin,
a Dutch energy supplier working on smart grids.
Barry’s work area is an expert on Alignment, IT Strategy, IT
Trends, strategic Information architecture, IT governance and
IT sourcing.
Appendix III: About the Authors

47
About CIONET
We are CIONET, the biggest community of IT executives
in Europe. Bringing together over 4200 CIOs, CTO’s and
IT directors from wide ranging sectors, cultures, aca-
demic backgrounds and generations, CIONET’s mem-
bership represents an impressive body of expertise in IT
management. CIONET’s mission is to feed and develop
that expertise by providing top-level IT executives with
the resources they need to realise their full potential.
CIONET develops, manages and moderates an integrat-
ed array of tools and services from the online CIONET
platform – the world’s first social network for CIOs –
to a range of offline networking events, conferences,
workshops and executive education programmes all
tailored to top-level management. CIONET also provides
exclusive access to the latest research through regular
online and offline publications and a number of value
adding partnerships with key players from the academic
and corporate worlds.
Faced with the rapidly changing role of today’s IT
executive, CIONET not only helps its members keep up
with the pace of change but empowers them to take
an active role in shaping the future of their field, always
challenging them with “What’s next.”
About GIIM
The objective of the Global Institute for IT Management
(GIIM) is to impart a complete, flexible, and immedi-
ately actionable set of best practices by an international
group of over 250 prominent academics, practitioners,
and management consultants, to prepare IT thought
leaders and business executives for the challenges and
opportunities that lie ahead. The institute provides a
comprehensive set of 32 IT management certificates,
with each frequently considered as being the single
most important educational experience in the attendees’
professional life.
The courses within the 32 respective certificates (130
courses) are delivered face-to-face (online is available)
in concert with affiliate IT management associations, in-
dividual company groups/cohorts, or universities (where
Masters Degrees can also be awarded). The learning
opportunities are in close proximity to the job, on a just-
in-time basis, and integrated into the clients broader
learning and development objectives. We partner with
our clients to deliver the right solutions to meet their
education objectives. See www.globaliim.com.
About BITTI
The Business & IT Trends Institute (BITTI.nl) is a bench-
mark, assessment, audit and consultancy organization
located in the Netherlands. IT’s goal is to be an added
value organization towards Business & IT questions
organizations have with the instruments benchmark,
assessment, audit and consultancy. These services are
delivered on a wide range such as alignment, (cyber)
security, value of IT and IT costs, governance and other.
dr. Barry Derksen (author of this report) is founder and
CEO of BITTI.

The world continues to experience profound chances.
The economic conundrum endures. Overall, IT is
becoming more strategic as organizations around
the globe evolve from applying IT to reduce back-
office expenses to leveraging it for innovative revenue
generating initiatives. It is clear that the role of IT (and
the CIO) is going through a transformation. Some
suggest that IT is the business. The purpose of this
4th annual IT trends report produced by the authors
for CIONET is to provide important insights on these
changes, focusing on the European considerations. It is
those organizations and individuals (IT and non-IT) that
are prepared who will prosper.
Global GlobalEurope Europe
5 5MOST IMPORTANT IT
MANAGEMENT CONCERNS
MOST INFLUENTIAL
TECHNOLOGIES
3. Velocity of change
in IT
4. Business Cost
Reduction /
Controls
5. Business
Productivity
3. Business Cost
Reduction /
Controls
4. Business
Productivity
5. Infrastructure
Capability
1. Business & IT Alignment 1. Analytics / Business Intelligence
2. Business Agility 2. Application
/ Software
development
3. Data Centre
Infrastructure
4. Cloud Computing
Planning
2. Big Data
3. Customer
Relationship
Management
4. Cloud Computing
5. Bring Your Own
Device

201505 IT Trends 2015

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