Earlier this week, Juniper Networks, a networks services provider, unveiled the results of a study it commissioned that examines the relationship between companies’ IT investment and their financial performance. The survey findings will no doubt make CIOs smile and confirm a long-held belief: Companies that view IT as a strategic asset experience on average 30 percent higher revenue growth than companies that view IT as a back-office function or a general waste of time, money and resources. These companies that view IT as strategic and perform well financially tend to possess the following characteristics, according to the survey: They are more likely to adopt newer technologies more quickly than other companies. When purchasing IT, they are driven by productivity gains more than cost-savings. They have more IT projects underway at one time than other companies. They are 30 percent more likely than other companies to have mobile workers. Their businesses are highly reliant on real-time transactions and automated processes. The research was conducted by TNS, a market research company based in England. TNS survedy IT decision-makers at 560 companies in North America, Europe and Asia with revenues in excess of $100 million for their attitudes toward enterprise technology. These attitudes were then segmented and mapped on corporate and financial data. From a different quarter comes another research report that’s encouraging for CIOs: Executive search company Korn/Ferry International, recently released results from its survey of more than 2,000 executives registered within the firm’s online Executive Center. They show that three-quarters of executives believe that CIOs have a role to play on the board of directors. When asked if CIOs have a role to play on a company’s board of directors, the most popular response by executives was “absolutely” (46 percent), while only a very small portion (three percent) of respondents stated “not at all.” SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe Some encouragement to start your week. —Meridith Levinson and Sandy Kendall Related content brandpost How AI can deliver eye-opening insights for IT AIOps can leverage machine learning to provide a robust set of proactive predictive analytics capabilities for a wide range of infrastructure. By Carol Wilder, VP of Product Management, Dell Technologies Sep 26, 2023 6 mins Artificial Intelligence brandpost 5 steps we can take to address the cyber skills shortage The cyber skills shortage is not going away anytime soon, despite the progress we are making as an industry to attract new talent. Per the latest “ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study,” we added more than 460,000 warm bodies over the past y By Leonard Kleinman Sep 26, 2023 7 mins IT Leadership brandpost Swiss energy services company uses machine learning to see the future Swiss energy company IWB wants a renewable future, but its technology for measuring solar power production was outdated. SAP’s machine learning (ML) and other tools have resulted in accurate forecasts. By Keith E. Greenberg, SAP Contributor Sep 26, 2023 5 mins Artificial Intelligence feature 6 IT rules worth breaking — and how to get away with it IT is a discipline of policies, protocols, and firm guidelines. But sometimes breaking bad is the only logical thing to do. Here’s how to do so while mitigating risks. By John Edwards Sep 26, 2023 8 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership IT Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe