Top 5 Priorities for IT Professionals

Nearly two out of three CIOs and other technology professionals say there’s a “major IT transformation” underway in their organizations, driven largely by broader efforts to deliver added value, enhance business performance and increase security, according to a new survey by consulting firm Protiviti.

The firm’s 2014 “IT Priorities Survey” finds that the roles of CIOs and business-minded technology leaders continue to shift to a broader scope of responsibilities, and are transitioning further from supportive functions toward overall business strategy and operations.

“More so than in prior years, IT departments are not only altering their structures, they are transforming their fundamental mission,” Kurt Underwood, a managing director with Protiviti and global leader of the firm’s IT consulting practice, said in a statement. “The IT function’s objective is evolving from simply responding to last year’s technology requests to helping shape aspects of business strategy through execution with an integrated approach to operations that adds value and protects the enterprise.”

Protiviti in late 2013 and early 2014 surveyed more than 1,100 IT professionals around the world (with the majority in North America), including CIOs, IT VPs and IT directors. Based on the survey findings, the top five major areas that present the most pressing challenges for IT professionals are: enhancing and protecting business value; cybersecurity; data classification (effectively organizing, managing, and securing growing amounts of data within the organization); IT asset and data management; and mobile platforms and social media.

When asked to rate specific areas that are considered priorities, respondents consistently ranked topics linked to cybersecurity and managing data privacy as “significant priorities” across several different categories.

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