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CIOs Prioritize Innovation to Improve Digital Customer Connections

The role of the CIO is evolving with an increased focus on unlocking customer connections through service innovation, according to the 2021 Global CIO Survey from Logicalis.


The study, which questions 1000 CIOs from around the world, reveals the shift in the role of the CIO with the majority of CIO respondents stating innovation, operational efficiency, and customer experience as their top priorities.

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

CIOs are now tasked with revolutionizing business infrastructures to tackle the modern world and increasingly digitally based interactions. Customers now expect to engage with businesses digitally as standard, and as a result companies need to innovate to redefine and elevate their customer interactions to stand out from the competition.

Over the last year, 73% of CIOs state the importance of customer experience has increased and this isn't slowing down any time soon.

Additionally, 4 in 5 (81%) respondents believe that their focus on redefining the customer experience will grow over the next 5 years.

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

Toby Alcock, CTO of Logicalis says: "Digital experience has become one of, if not the most, important way to reach, connect and communicate with customers in the new digital age. The ability to provide an optimal digital experience will determine the future of an organization. To deliver the digital experience, businesses should overhaul their infrastructure and leverage evolving technologies to interrogate the end-to-end digital customer journey. By being in closer proximity to customers, CIOs can ensure they can keep up with the needs and demands of the modern customer."

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CIOs Prioritize Innovation to Improve Digital Customer Connections

The role of the CIO is evolving with an increased focus on unlocking customer connections through service innovation, according to the 2021 Global CIO Survey from Logicalis.


The study, which questions 1000 CIOs from around the world, reveals the shift in the role of the CIO with the majority of CIO respondents stating innovation, operational efficiency, and customer experience as their top priorities.

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

CIOs are now tasked with revolutionizing business infrastructures to tackle the modern world and increasingly digitally based interactions. Customers now expect to engage with businesses digitally as standard, and as a result companies need to innovate to redefine and elevate their customer interactions to stand out from the competition.

Over the last year, 73% of CIOs state the importance of customer experience has increased and this isn't slowing down any time soon.

Additionally, 4 in 5 (81%) respondents believe that their focus on redefining the customer experience will grow over the next 5 years.

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

Toby Alcock, CTO of Logicalis says: "Digital experience has become one of, if not the most, important way to reach, connect and communicate with customers in the new digital age. The ability to provide an optimal digital experience will determine the future of an organization. To deliver the digital experience, businesses should overhaul their infrastructure and leverage evolving technologies to interrogate the end-to-end digital customer journey. By being in closer proximity to customers, CIOs can ensure they can keep up with the needs and demands of the modern customer."

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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