Innovative technologies support the core business

That's according to a new study conducted by Oxford Economics on behalf of ServiceNow, in which 516 global CIOs participated. For many years, CIOs focused primarily on IT.

However, according to the survey, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of CIOs now believe that business and leadership skills are more important than technology savvy.

The most successful CIOs are therefore those who have firmly positioned themselves as business visionaries. The best-performing CIOs focus on strategy rather than operations and align IT goals with business objectives.

These CIOs also report higher productivity, innovation and customer satisfaction in their organizations.

"The survey clearly shows that CIOs in Germany are also reorienting themselves - away from a pure technology focus to a business perspective that focuses on business goals. This paradigm shift leads to more innovation, performance and ultimately success, from which everyone in the company benefits."

explains Detlef Krause, Area Vice President Germany at Service Now.

German CIOs have increasingly strong relationships with other members of senior management, particularly the COO, CFO and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO).

Most of the CIOs surveyed from Germany agree that building partnerships and cross-team projects at decision-maker level is an important task.

64 percent of German CIOs agree that their job is to educate other members of management about digital technologies.

Seventy-two percent of CIOs also say their core responsibilities include collaborating with the CHRO on talent strategies.From a technology perspective, successful CIOs are implementing measures to automate and integrate work processes and adopt digital workflows to drive business success.

They also establish a company-wide consensus on the use of these technologies. In Germany, the majority of CIOs recognize the importance of digital workflows for increasing efficiency (79 percent), productivity (83 percent) and innovation
(72 percent).

"As technology becomes more critical to business success, expectations of the CIO have risen. Today, the most successful CIOs are the thought leaders and visionaries"

Says Chris Pope, vice president of innovation at ServiceNow.