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Executive summary
Cost optimisation rose from number 11 in 2022 to become the number 3 priority for CIOs in 2024. At the same time, CIOs are trying to drive greater operating effectiveness and see a role for the decisive use of data in delivering on both of those goals. To understand how greater costs intelligence can support those objectives, ADAPT conducted primary research in 1H 2024. Our findings organised into these 3 chapters:
- Demonstrating value and maximising productivity.
- Gaining costs visibility to reduce duplication.
- Investing for the future with greater business anticipation.
To address those themes, ADAPT selected organisations from the banking, insurance and mining/utilities sectors. These findings are based on the responses of 12 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and 8 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) – compared to ADAPT’s national benchmarking where relevant.
Our key findings include:
- The visibility into overall IT costs trended down over the past 18 months. In Nov 2022, 73% were effective at this; now, just 57% can get this visibility. Tracking the value of this spend is even harder: 38% could do this in Nov 2022 and that’s fallen to 35% in Apr 2024.
- Surprisingly, the ability change course using those cost and value insights has improved from 26% in Nov 2023 to 33% in Apr 2024. Many want help: 44% want help with costs benchmarking.
- Respondents’ top 2 operational priorities are to simplify processes and to drive costs out for the businesses. If they do manage to find savings, improving cyber resilience and retaining customers are the most important for this group.
- Although the alignment between corporate and IT strategies seems strong, codifying and anticipating need is hard. 50% use qualitative methods to anticipate, 30% use a mix of insights and collaboration, while the rest are looking into value stream management.
- In driving the necessary changes, executives feel they don’t have enough funds, support or resources to achieve what they need to succeed.
The remainder of this document will explore the main findings in each theme.
