The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

These are the findings of the Society for Information Management’s 40th Anniversary
IT Issues and Trends Study, with responses from 1,005 IT executives, including 345
CIOs and 624 unique organizations. The average revenue of participating organiza-
tions was $5.4 billion (median $420 million). IT spending, as a percentage of revenue,
was 6.9%, the highest figure in ten years and 27% higher than in 2019. Average IT
spending in 2020 was $372.6 million. The percentage of organizations decreasing IT
spending more than doubled. Most reported increases in both head count and employ-
ee salaries, which were, however, less than in recent years. These and many other find-
ings were likely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The top five IT management issues
in 2020 were Cybersecurity, Alignment of IT with the Business, Data Analytics, Digital
Transformation, and Compliance & Regulations, unchanged from 2019. The top five
largest IT investments were also largely unchanged: Cloud Computing, Data Analyt-
ics, Cybersecurity, Application Development and CRM. Use of cloud services continued
to increase, almost doubling in the last five years, and cybersecurity continues to be
a concern. The most common criteria for assessing CIO performance were User Satis-
faction (Internal), Value of IT to the Business, Contribution of IT to Strategy, IT Cost
Control and Cybersecurity. The average tenure of CIOs remains a little over six years,
with almost 47% reporting to the CEO and over 26% to the CFO, the former down
and the latter up since 2019. Continuing trends are for CIOs to come from outside the
organization (now over 80%) and from non-IT positions (now nearly a quarter). suc-
cessfully.1

Leon Kappelman Chris Maurer

University of North Texas (U.S.) University of Virginia (U.S.)
Fellow, SIM DFW (U.S.) SIM Research Fellow
SIM Research Fellow
Kevin Kim
Ephraim R. McLean University of North Texas (U.S.)
Georgia State University (U.S.)
SIM Research Fellow Katia Guerra
University of North Texas (U.S.)
Vess L. Johnson
University of North Texas (U.S.) Mark Snyder
SIM Research Fellow Fellow, SIM DFW (U. S.)

Russell Torres
University of North Texas (U.S.)
SIM Research Fellow

DOI: 10.17705/2msqe.000XX
March 2021 (20:1) MIS Quarterly Executive 69
The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Introduction 624 organizations represented by their CIO

or highest-ranking IT executive responding
Since 1980, the Society for Information (typically a direct report to the CIO in a large
Management (SIM) has surveyed its members to organization).
determine the issues of most concern to them and This report is divided into six main sections:
their organizations. Year-to-year comparisons are Top IT Management Issues and Concerns;
made to identify trends and track changes over Investments in Technology and Worrisome
time in the evolving management and usage of Technologies; Participating Organizations and
the information technologies entrusted to their their IT Practices, including spending, workforce,
care. This year’s SIM IT Trends Study marks the infrastructure and cybersecurity; IT Performance
40th anniversary of this undertaking. Over the Measures; CIO Tenure, Reporting, Background
years, the surveys have expanded to become and Activities; and Summary and Conclusions.
one of the most comprehensive investigations
of IT executives and the management and use of 1. Top IT Management Issues
information technology (IT). This year’s study is
of particular importance because of the onset of and Concerns
the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020 and its
effect on organizations and the economy. 1.1. The Top IT Management Issues of
Founded in 1968, SIM is the oldest and largest Organizations
not-for-profit professional organization in the IT leaders specified their most important IT
U.S. for CIOs, senior IT executives, prominent management issues or concerns by selecting up
academicians, advisors and other IT leaders. SIM to five items from a list of 41. The top 10 issues
is both a national organization and a network of selected by the most senior IT leader in each of
local chapters. SIM members, who comprise a the 624 unique organizations are presented in
broad cross-section of IT leaders, meet regularly Table 1, along with the previous decade’s results.
to share, learn and network. SIM succeeds The top 10 IT management issues and
because it provides value to its members, their concerns of organizations remained fairly stable
organizations and their communities. SIM co- in 2020, with one change in composition and
founded both MIS Quarterly and MIS Quarterly only moderate changes in the percentage of
Executive. organizations selecting. Security, Alignment and
The SIM IT Trends Study’s questionnaire Data Analytics remained organizations’ most
is updated annually to improve its quality important IT management issues. However,
and reflect changes in the IT field. However, presumably because of Covid-19, several changes
questionnaire changes are kept to a minimum were apparent this year. Not surprisingly,
wherever possible so that year-to-year Business Continuity moved up dramatically from
comparisons can be made and trends tracked. 16th in 2019 to 7th in 2020. Accompanying this
In April 2020, a personal link to this year’s was increased interest in Cost Reduction and
questionnaire was emailed to each of SIM’s Controls for both IT and the business. Despite
3,802 members. Nine weeks later, after weekly Cloud Computing falling three places to 9th, the
reminders, bi-weekly e-newsletter articles and percentage of respondents selecting it as a top
a special SIM chapter competition to encourage issue was only 6.9% lower than last year’s 19.7%.
participation, 1,005 completed questionnaires Similarly, Business Agility dropped from 7th to
were received, a response rate of 26.4% 10th but the percentage selecting it fell only 5.2%.
(compared to 24.6% in 2019). Innovation fell from 9th in 2019 to 11th, likely
Consistent with the practice since 2013, reflecting a current focus on keeping business
these 1,005 responses were used to create two functions operational rather than expanding
intersecting datasets: “The CIOs dataset” of the business capabilities.
345 respondents who identified themselves
as the “CIO or highest-ranking IT executive,”
and “the Unique Organizations dataset” of the

1  This article is being published as a SIM-sponsored report.

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 1: Organizations’ Top 10 Most Important IT Management Issues, 2009-2020

IT Management
2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Concerns/Issues a
N (unique
624 618 793 769 801 785 717 484 195 275 172
organizations)
Security/
Cybersecurity/ 1 (36.1%) 1 1 1 2 2 2 7 9 8 9
Privacy b
Alignment of IT with
2 (35.1%) 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 3
the Business
Data Analytics/Data
3 (25.3%) 3 3 3
Management
Digital
4 (24.4%) 4 7 8
Transformation
Compliance and
4 (24.4%) 5 6 4 12
Regulations
Cost Reduction/
6 (23.7%) 8 9 5 6 10 9 4
Controls (IT) c

Business Continuity 7 (22.8%) 16 12 18 11 15

Cost Reduction/
8 (19.4%) 10 10 6 7 8 17 5 5 10 8
Controls (Business) c
Cloud/Cloud
9 (18.3%) 6 13 14
Computing
Agility/Flexibility
10 (18.1%) 7 8 9 5 9 3 2 3 2 2
(Business) d
a
Blank cells, unless otherwise noted, indicate that the issue was not included that year.
b
In previous years, “Security/Cybersecurity/Privacy” was “Security/Privacy.”
c
Business Cost Reduction/Controls” and “IT Cost Reduction/Controls” were merged into a “Cost Reduction/Controls”
category with Business and IT selections. “Business Cost Controls” was combined with “Business Productivity” in previous
years.
d
“Business Agility/Flexibility” and “IT Agility” were merged into an “Agility/Flexibility” category with Business and IT
selections in 2015.

1.2. IT Leadership’s Top IT to 3rd and 9th, respectively. This change in

Management Issues and Concerns IT leadership’s focus to maintaining business
IT leaders also identified up to five most operations and conserving organizational
personally important or worrisome IT resources is presumably in response to Covid-19-
management issues. These are presented in Table induced increases in economic uncertainty and
2, alongside the results from the prior seven recessionary conditions.
years. Digital Transformation, first introduced in
IT leaders remain personally concerned about 2017, continued to rise in importance for IT
Cybersecurity (1st) and IT Alignment with the leaders, moving up five places from 11th in
Business (2nd). Consistent with 2020 changes 2019 to 6th in 2020. This reflects the need for
in organizational concerns (Table 1), both integrated, flexible information systems capable
Business Continuity and IT Cost Controls moved of supporting a broad range of both anticipated
up significantly as most personally worrisome and unanticipated functions, and is echoed in the

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 2: IT Leaders’ Personally Most Important/Worrisome IT Management Issues,

2013-2020

IT Leaders’ Most Important/ 2020

2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Worrisome Concernsa (% Selecting)

N (unique organizations) 624 618 793 769 801 785 717 484
Security/Cybersecurity/Privacy b
1 (40.9%) 1 1 1 1 1 1 2
Alignment of IT and/with the Business 2 (23.4%) 2 4 4 3 2 3 1
Business Continuity 3 (21.8%) 8 5 8 5 7 13 4
Credibility of IT/Perception of IT
4 (20.4%) 4 3 5 11 13 14 16
Leadership c
IT Talent/Skill Shortage/Retention 5 (18.4%) 3 2 3 2 3 2 3
Digital Transformation 6 (16.2%) 11 17 19
Compliance and Regulations (e.g.,
7 (15.9%) 5 6 5 11 13 14 16
HIPAA, SarBox, SAS70, PCI, etc.) d
Agility/Flexibility – IT 8 (15.4%) 12 7 6 8 5 16
Cost Reduction/Controls – IT 9 (14.4%) 17 15 20 13 21 30 13
CIO Leadership Role 10 (12.8%) 9 17 15 14 9 14 10
a
Blank cells, unless otherwise noted, indicate that the issue was not included that year.
b
In previous years, “Security/Cybersecurity/Privacy” was “Security/Privacy.”
c
“Credibility of IT/Perception of IT Leadership” was “Credibility (IT)” in 2015.
d “Compliance and Regulations (e.g., HIPAA, SarBox, SAS70, PCI, etc.)” was “Legal Compliance - HIPPA, SarBox, SAS70, PCI,
etc.” in 2013.
e “Business Continuity” and “Disaster Recovery” were combined in the 2013 study.

increased concern that IT executives show in IT organizations has been performed and/or is well
Agility and Flexibility. All this points to IT leaders in hand.
doing more with less and using information Unsurprisingly, IT leaders expressed concern
technologies to better connect their business about Cost Controls and Agility for both
operations with suppliers, employees and themselves and their organizations. Some of this
customers. concern is likely due to organizational stresses
In Table 3, the Top-10 lists of IT management prompted by Covid-19. As in prior years, much of
issues identified as most important to the disparity between these lists centers around
organizations and those selected as most items which, while not viewed as critical to the
personally important are presented together. organization, are fundamental to the ability of
Several interesting differences in organizational IT to provide services to the business, such as
vs. personal priorities are evident in this Attracting and Retaining IT Talent, Maintaining IT
comparison. First, Data Analytics is a top-10 Credibility and CIO Leadership.
item in both lists but fell five places as the most
worrisome to IT leaders, while remaining the 2. Technology Investments and
3rd most important issue to organizations. This Worrisome Technologies
may indicate a belief among many IT leaders that IT leaders were also asked to identify the
much of the groundwork for establishing data technologies that represent their organization’s
analytics technologies and practices within their largest current or near-term IT investments,
those that should receive more investment, and

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 3: Top 10 Personal and Organizational IT Management Issues, 2020

Most Important or
Most Important to
Worrisome to IT
IT Management Issues their Organizations
Leaders
(2019 Rank)
(2019 Rank)

Security/Cybersecurity/Privacy 1 (1) 1 (1)

Alignment of IT with the Business 2 (2) 2 (2)
Data Analytics/Data Management 3 (3) 12 (7)
Digital Transformation 4 (4) 6 (11)
Compliance & Regulations (e.g., HIPAA, SarBox, SAS70, PCI,
4 (5) 7 (5)
etc.)
Cost Reduction/Controls (IT) 6 (8) 9 (17)
Business Continuity 7 (16) 3 (8)
Cost Reduction/Controls (Business) 8 (10) 30 (39)
Cloud/Cloud Computing 9 (6) 16 (17)
Agility/Flexibility – Business 10 (7) 15 (15)
Agility/Flexibility – IT 12 (11) 8 (12)
IT Talent/Skill Shortage/Retention 18 (17) 5 (3)
Credibility of IT/Perception of IT Leadership 20 (20) 4 (4)
CIO Leadership Role 29 (32) 10 (9)
n = most senior IT leader in 624 unique organizations

those of greatest personal concern (“i.e., they Intelligence and Related Technologies was
keep you up at night”). Participants selected up to unseated by Cloud Computing.
five in each category from a list of 37.
2.2. The Most Worrisome Technologies
2.1. Organizations’ Largest IT and Those that Should Get More
Investments Investment
The responses of IT leaders from 624 unique IT leaders selected up to five technologies
organizations on their organization’s largest from the same list of 37 investment options
current or near-term IT investment are listed that they believe should get more funding, and
in Table 4. The top 10 largest IT investments an additional five they find most personally
remained fairly consistent, but there were a few worrisome. The top 10 selections for 2019 and
notable changes. First, and most significant, 2020 in each of these categories are presented
is the increased ranking of Collaboration in Table 5, along with the top 10 largest IT
Tools from 16th in 2019 to 8th in 2020, its investments.
highest ranking ever. This indicates the need The presence of an item in the top 10 of all
of many organizations to enable off-premises three lists indicates that it is of high concern to
work in response to Covid-19. Investments in IT leaders and that investments are currently
Collaboration Technology, along with Networks being made in this area and should continue to be
& Telecommunications, displaced Legacy made. Four items stand out in particular: Cloud
Applications (9th in 2019, 12th in 2020) and Computing, Analytics, Cybersecurity and Legacy
Application Integration (10th in 2019, 13th in Apps. However, several technology areas of great
2020). Finally, after more than a decade as the concern to IT leaders have not been receiving
most selected IT investment, Analytics, Business corresponding organizational investment. One

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 4: Top 10 Largest IT Investments of Organizations, 2010-2020

Information 2020
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Technologies a (% Selecting)

N (unique organizations) 624 618 793 769 801 785 717 484 195 275 172

Cloud Computing (e.g., 1

2 3 3 4 7 5 3 2 2 5
SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) (38.1%)

Analytics/Business
2
Intelligence/ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
(35.6%)
Forecasting/Big Data b
3
Security/Cybersecurityc 3 2 2 3 3 7 14 11 8
(33.0%)

Software Development/ 4
4 4 4 2 4 4 6 11
Maintenanced (27.6%)

CRM (Customer
5
Relationship 5 6 6 5 5 6 2 5 5 9
(22.8%)
Management)
ERP (Enterprise 6
6 5 5 6 2 3 4 3 3 3
Resource Planning) (22.3%)
Legacy Apps: Replacing/ 7
7 9 9 11 9 15 16
Re-platforminge (15.7%)
8
Collaboration Tools 16 18 20 15 13 21 12
(14.6%)
Data Center/ 9
8 7 7 7 6 2
Infrastructure (14.3%)
Network/ 10
11 8 8 8 8 9 8 12
Telecommunications (13.6%)

a Blank cells, unless otherwise noted, indicate that this item was not included that year.
b In 2015, “Analytics/Business Intelligence” was combined with “Data Mining” (17th in 2013, 32nd in 2014) and “Forecasting”
(25th in 2013, 23rd in 2014). “Big Data” was incorporated in 2016 (10th in 2012, 5th in 2013, 9th in 2014 and 16th in 2015).
c In 2006 and 2008, this was “Security Technologies” and simply “Security” in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
e In 2013, this was “Apps” and in 2012 “Application Development.”
f In 2016, “Legacy Applications” was split into “Legacy Apps: Replacing/Re-platforming” and “Legacy Apps: Maintaining
(updating/consolidation).”

is IT Staff Development, which has historically investment. A similar but smaller disconnect
been of significant concern but underfunded. exists for Identity Management, despite its
This trend continued in 2020, with investment importance for cybersecurity, the growing use of
in IT Staff Development ranked 3rd on the list of cloud computing, and increased remote IT access
most worrisome issues, but a lowly 25th on the by employees, suppliers and customers.
list of current investments and down five places Interestingly, IT leaders find neither
to 11th among those that should receive more Collaboration Tools nor Networks &

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 5: Organizations’ Largest IT Investments, Those that Should Get More Investment
and Those Most Personally Worrisome, 2020

Those that Those Most

Largest IT
Should Get More Personally
Investments
Information Technologies Investment Worrisome
(% Selecting)
(% Selecting) (% Selecting)
2019 Rank
2019 Rank 2019 Rank

Cloud Computing (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) 2 (38.1%) 2 4 (20.7%) 4 7 (14.1%) 7

Analytics/Business Intelligence/Data Mining/
2 (35.6%) 1 (37.5%) 1 4 (15.2%) 4
Forecasting/Big Data
Security/Cybersecurity 3 (33.0%) 3 2 (31.4%) 2 1 (43.9%) 1
App/Software Development/Maintenance 4 (27.6%) 4 15 (11.2%) 14 13 (9.9%) 9
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) 5 (22.8%) 5 9 (11.9%) 8 22 (6.4%) 15
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) 6 (22.3%) 6 20 (7.7%) 18 16 (9.0%) 16
Legacy Apps: Replacing/Re-platforming 7 (15.7%) 7 8 (13.3%) 11 6 (14.7%) 6
Collaboration Tools 8 (14.6%) 16 13 (11.4%) 15 28 (4.6%) 27

Data Center/Infrastructure 9 (14.3%) 8 25 (6.1%) 28 17 (8.3%) 18

Network/Telecommunications 10 (13.6%) 11 34 (4.2%) 30 21 (6.6%) 23

AI/Machine Learning/Expert Systems 15 (9.6%) 12 3 (26.6%) 3 11 (10.4%) 11
Innovation/Disruptive Technologies 20 (6.1%) 15 5 (19.1%) 5 5 (14.9%) 5
Disaster Recovery/IT Continuity Planning 14 (10.7%) 14 6 (15.2%) 6 2 (27.4%) 2
Data Integration/Data Quality 17 (7.7%) 17 7 (13.9%) 9 8 (11.7%) 8
Integration/Application Integration/Data
13 (11.2%) 10 10 (11.7%) 16 10 (10.9%) 14
Integration
IT Staff Development/Training/Retention/H1B a 25 (4.8%) 24 11 (11.5%) 6 3 (16.2%) 3
Identity Management 23 (5.3%) 28 16 (10.1%) 17 9 (11.4%) 13
a H1B is a visa that allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.
n = most senior IT leader in 624 unique organizations

Telecommunications particularly worrisome are publicly traded companies. Responses came

despite the present circumstances. This suggests from 30 different industry sectors, though five
that pressures to maintain productivity with a provided 49.7% of the responses: Finance/
distributed remote workforce are manageable Insurance (14.7%), Healthcare/Medical (13%),
with largely familiar technologies. Manufacturing (8.8%), Education (8.2%) and
Not-For-Profit (5.4%). The average organization
3. Participating Organizations revenue was $5.4 billion and the median was
and Their IT Practices $420 million (n=427), indicating that a few very
large organizations skewed the sample average.
As in previous years, the majority of
3.1. Location, Industry, Revenue and IT organizations adopted a centralized IT structure:
Spending 25.1% were “completely centralized” and 45%
Of the 624 unique organizations in the 2020 were “centralized,” while 20.2% used a “balanced”
sample, 96.6% are located in the U.S. and 32.3%

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Figure 1: IT Organization Structure Trends, 2009-2020

structure, 7.9% were “decentralized” and 1.8% we extrapolated an average IT budget of $372.6
were “completely decentralized.” The relative million and total IT spending across the complete
usage of centralized and balanced/decentralized 624 organization sample of $232.5 billion.
IT structures has remained fairly stable over Average IT budget as a percentage of revenue,
time (Figure 1). Though the trend line is toward however, is not uniformly distributed across
more centralization, there are also some possible sectors (and often not even among organizations
indications of cyclicality. within a sector), with some industries spending
considerably more than others (Table 6).
3.2. IT Budget Trends Organizations reported an average 2.9%
The average IT budget of the 402 increase to their IT budgets in 2020 over 2019
organizations providing data was $118 million (n=359). This is down by more than 56% from
(down from $153 million in 2019 but the same as the 6.6% increase reported in 2019. IT leaders
reported in 2018). The median budget increased expect IT budgets increases to be even lower in
from $8 million in 2019 to $10 million in 2020. 2021, with an average increase of 2.4% predicted
As a percentage of total revenue, organizations (n=346). Looking at trends in the percentage
spent, on average, 6.9% on IT in 2020. This is of organizations increasing or decreasing their
the highest percentage reported over the last 10 IT budgets (Figure 3), the effects of Covid-19
years (Figure 2), nearly 30% above the ten-year are quite clear: After a steady upward trend
average and 16% above the five-year average. A since 2012 of more organizations increasing
year does not make a trend, of course, and Covid- their budgets, the percentage decreasing their
induced revenue reductions along with Covid- IT budgets more than doubled while those
related increases in spending on remote, cloud, increasing their budgets fell by more than 20%.
and collaborative technologies could account for
much of the sharp uptick in 2020. 3.3. IT Spending by Category
Because only some organizations provided Respondents were asked how their IT budgets
both revenue and IT spending figures (n=366), were allocated across eight mutually exclusive

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Figure 2: Average IT Spending as a Percentage of Revenue, 2009-2020

Table 6: IT Spending as Percentage of Revenue by Business Sector, 2020 (Sectors with at

Least 10 Organizations)
Number of Average % of
Sector
Organizations Revenue Spent on IT

IT Services/Consulting 29 27.6%
IT Hardware/Software 16 16.3%
Other for-profit 26 12.6%
Not-for-Profit 34 10.5%
Government 27 9.5
Education 51 8.0%
Financial Services/Insurance/Banking 92 7.6%
Healthcare/Medical/Medical Technology/BioMedical 81 6.9%
Business or Professional Services/Consulting 23 6.4%
Entertainment/Sports/Media 13 3.1%
Manufacturing 55 3.0%
Consumer Goods/Services 20 2.0%
Automotive 19 1.6%

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Figure 3: Percentage of Organizations Increasing, Not Changing and Decreasing IT

Budgets from Prior Year, 2009-2020

categories (Table 7). Noticeable changes were Capital Investment both experienced decreases in
observed in Software (increase) and Facilities 2020.
(decrease), perhaps somewhat in response to Given that Analytics continues to be a large
Covid-19. The trends of Hardware’s share of investment area, we gathered data (n=208) on
IT spending declining and Cloud’s increasing how analytics spending is spread across the same
continued. eight mutually exclusive budget categories listed
The rate of rise in budget allocations for in Table 7. The largest proportion of analytics-
Cloud Services seems to be decreasing and the specific spending was for Employees (34.6%),
percentage spent on Employees is continuing followed by Software (18.3%), Cloud (17.2%),
its downward trend, after a brief bump in 2019. Consultants (13.2%), Contractors (7.3%),
To enable us to compare data collected since Hardware (4.8%) and Training (3.3%).
2017 with earlier data, Hardware, Software and 175 organizations reported outsourcing
Facilities were grouped together in Figure 4. at least some portion of their IT function and
The broad categories presented in Table indicated that 62.4% of their outsourcing budgets
7 do not tell the complete picture of how IT was spent domestically. When asked to select
budgets are spent. Table 8 provides more up to three of their largest outsourcing expense
granularity on additional budget categories categories, Software Development & Maintenance
that generally overlap one another. A sizable was the most common, followed by Data Center
increase in Cybersecurity spending was observed Operations (Table 9). Over time, Cybersecurity
in 2020 after a large drop last year. Within the and Network Administration have continued to
Cybersecurity category, organizations allocated grow, while other areas have seen relatively small
an average of 17.6% of their cyberspending to changes.
Outsourcing. Many other categories saw modest
increases, while Software Development and IT

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Figure 4: IT Budget Allocations, 2010-2020, with Trendlines

Table 7: IT Budget Allocations, 2017-2020

% Allocated
% Change
Budget Categories
2017 2018 2019 2020 2019-2020

Hardware 12.6% 11.9% 11.9% 11.5% -3.7%

Software 16.6% 16.0% 15.1% 17.2% 14.0%
Facilities (including supplies &
4.7% 4.8% 5.0% 3.7% -25.8%
consumables)
Employees 37.9% 35.2% 38.0% 33.9% -10.7%
Consultants 7.1% 7.4% 7.9% 8% 1.0%
Contractors 6.2% 6.8% 6.9% 6.2% -10.1%
Cloud Services (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS,
11.1% 14.0% 15.5% 16.0% 3.4%
process, +)
Other 3.9% 3.8% 1.9% 3.8% 3.4%
n = most senior IT leader in n
410 434 274 366 101.1%
unique organizations
Annual totals may not equal 100% due to rounding

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 8: IT Budget Allocations to Non-Mutually Exclusive Categories, 2017-2020

% Allocated
Non-Mutually Exclusive IT % Change
Budget Categories 2017 2018 2019 2020 2019 to 2020

Keeping the IT Lights On (KTLO) 40.5% 48.9% 39.6% 39.4% -0.6%

Software Development &
20.1% 27.1% 18.6% 17.0% -8.4%
Maintenance
IT Capital Investment 14.6% 18.4% 14.7% 14.2% -3.1%
Outsourcing 9.1% 10.7% 8.2% 9.4% 14.1%
Cybersecurity 5.3% 7.7% 6.9% 8.6% 24.3%
BI/Analytics 5.3% 6.0% 6.1% 6.9% 13.5%
IT-Related R&D 3.9% 5.3% 4.8% 5.3% 11.1%
Offshore IT 4.5% 5.8% 4.4% 4.5% 1.6%

Management/Leadership Training 1.7% 2.4% 2.0% 2.6% 26.9%

Technical Training 2.1% 2.7% 2.2% 2.7% 24.2%

n = most senior IT leader 530 548 369 338

Average annual totals do not equal 100% because these categories can overlap and are not mutually exclusive.

3.4. IT Workforce and Salary Trends IT employees (Figure 6), down significantly from
3.4.1. IT Employees and their Salaries. 63% in 2019. The percentage of organizations
In 2020, the average number of “full-time IT reporting no change was 16.4%, compared to
employees (IT FTEs, not including contractors or 13.1% in 2019, while 32.5% reported decreases,
consultants)” who “report to or under the top IT up 36% from 23.9% in 2019. Overall, in 2020
person” was 423 (n=497). This is up considerably there was an average increase of 1.2% in IT FTEs,
from the three previous years (229 in 2019, 374 down over 70% from 4.1% in 2019. However,
in 2018 and 397 in 2017), but still lower than projections for 2021 show movement back
that reported in 2016 (692). However, the median toward the 2019 pre-Covid-19 levels, indicating
number of IT FTEs in 2020 was 30, which is more that much of the 2020 changes were likely in
consistent with earlier years (30, 26, 30 and 28 in response to the pandemic.
2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 respectively). 72% of In 2020, 89.8% of organizations reported
responding organizations reported having 100 or that average IT salaries increased or remained
fewer IT employees, which is lower than the 76% flat (Figure 7), down from 96.4% in 2019. The
reported in 2019. Seven organizations (1.4%) average increase in IT salaries was also down
reported having no IT FTEs at all, presumably by more than half (53.1%) from 4.9% in 2019
because they outsource all of their IT. On average, to 2.3%. IT leaders project that these trends will
9.2% of IT FTEs in 2020 were “located outside likely continue into 2021.
their home country (i.e., offshore)” (n=442), up 3.4.2. IT Contractors and Consultants.
from 8.6% in 2019. Nearly 72% of organizations The average number of IT Consultants and
reported having no IT employees outside of the Contractors in responding organizations in
employer’s home country (Figure 5). 2020 rose substantially to 713.76 (n=395) from
In 2020, 51% of 323 responding organizations 65.5 (n=369) in 2019. However, this average
reported an increase in the number of internal was significantly skewed by three respondents;

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Figure 5: Percentage of IT FTEs Located Outside Employer’s Home Country, 2016-2020

Table 9: Top IT Outsourcing Services, 2018-2020a

2018 2019 2020
Outsourcing Category
(n=298) (n=182) (n= 175)
Software & Application Development, Maintenance,
76.8% 74.7% 76.9%
Support, & Programming
Data Center, Infrastructure, IT Operations 50.3% 54.4% 54.4%
Network Administration & Management 29.9% 25.3% 30.2%
Software/System Testing & Quality Assurance 17.4% 23.1% 22.5%
Help Desk/Service Desk 31.2% 23.6% 26.6%
Cyber Security/IT Security 31.2% 37.4% 41.4%
a
Percentage of organizations that selected category as one of the top three outsourcing
services.

removing them reduced the average to 58.79, of organizations reported using fewer than 50 IT
which is more consistent with prior years and Consultants or Contractors, similar to the 89.2%
presents a gradually declining trendline (83.3 in reported in 2019 and 90.1% in 2018, while 28.1%
2017, 72.6 in 2018, 65.5 in 2019). The median reported using none, up from 23.3% in 2019 and
remained steady at 3.0 with a standard deviation 26.3% in 2018.
of 340.8, indicating substantial variability. 89.5%

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Figure 6: Percentage of Organizations Reporting Increases, No Change and Decreases in

Internal IT FTEs, 2015-2020, 2021 Projected

Figure 7: Percentage of Organizations Reporting Increases, No Change or Decreases in

Average IT Salary, 2015-2020, 2021 Projected

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Figure 8: Turnover Rate for Full-Time IT Employees, 2011-2020

Of the 238 organizations that provided data (e.g., legacy applications, mainframe, COBOL,
on using IT Contractors and Consultants, 47.9% etc.) remains unknown. Also, the percentage
reported an increase (almost 12% lower than of organizations anticipating no retirements
the 54.4% in 2019), 22.3% reported no change dropped by 11.6% from 45.0% in 2019 to 39.8%
and 29.8% reported a decrease, which is 17.3% in 2020. Figure 9 shows that an increasing
higher than the 25.4% reported in 2019. For percentage of organizations are expecting to be
2021, 44.2% anticipate an increase in the use of affected by retirements over the next five years.
IT Contractors and Consultants, 22.3% anticipate 3.4.4. IT Workforce Training Expenditures.
no change and 33.5% a decrease. The overall expenditure on training as a
3.4.3. IT Workforce Turnover and percentage of IT budgets rose 8.4% in 2020 to
Retirements. Figure 8 shows the IT employee 5.3% from 4.9% in 2019 (Figure 10). This was the
turnover rate, which has been relatively flat for highest percentage in the 10-year period shown
the past three years. Respondents also provided in the figure. Presumably, some of the increased
estimates of what portion of their IT employee training expenditure in 2020 was Covid related
turnover was “involuntary (i.e., the result of and not just for IT personnel. Pandemic-related
downsizing, layoffs, terminations, etc.)” rather training needs could include remote management
than “voluntary (i.e., quitting, retirements, etc.)” and collaboration techniques and even coping
in the prior year (a mostly pre-Covid period of skills. Interestingly, in 2019 IT leaders were
time). For the 212 organizations providing data already projecting an increase in training
for both types of turnover, voluntary departures expenditures to 5.1%.
accounted, on average, for 70.3% of turnover
(fairly consistent with the 67.7% reported in 3.5. Use of Cloud and Shared Services
2019 and 69.6% in 2018). Of the 446 reporting organizations, 98.4%
Respondents (n=357) expect 7.0% of their IT indicated that they used Cloud Services and
employees to retire in the next five years, which is Solutions, almost the same as the 98.5% reported
similar to the 7.1% reported in 2019 and 6.9% in in 2019. On average, these organizations,
2018. However, the extent to which specific skills delivered 49.9% “of all IT services” via the cloud,
may be more adversely affected by retirements continuing the strong upward trend that began in
2015 (Figure 11).

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Figure 9: Percentage of IT Employees Expected to Retire in the Next Five Years, 2017-
2020

Figure 10: Percentage of IT Budget Spent on Training, 2011-2020

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Figure 11: Average Amount of All IT Services Delivered by Organizations via the Cloud

Figure 12: Percentage of IT Services Delivered via the Cloud, 2017-2020

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Figure 13: Percentage of Organizations Reporting increases, No Change and Decreases

in External Cloud Usage, 2017-2020

Figure 14: Percentage of Organizations Using Each Cloud Category, 2017-2020

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Figure 15: Average Percentage of All Cloud-Based IT Provided by Category, 2017-2020

Figure 16: Organizations Using Each Platform Category for over 50% of Their Cloud-
Based IT, 2017-2020

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Figure 17: Corporate Cloud Platform Mix, 2017-2020

3.5.1. Cloud-Based IT Services and As Figure 15 indicates, there continues to be

Solutions. Figure 12 provides additional a slow shift to external public multi-tenant cloud
granularity of the trend of more organizations platforms. Figure 16 provides further evidence
delivering more IT services via the cloud. Just of the increasing trend in the percentage of
1.6% of organizations reported no cloud-based organizations using external public multi-tenant
IT in 2020, compared to 1.5% in 2019 and 2.5% platforms for over 50% of their cloud-based IT,
in 2018. Only 25.1% reported that 20% or less of and the decreasing trend of using fewer internal
IT services were cloud-based, down almost 32% private cloud-based solutions.
from 36.9% in 2019. Looking at the cloud platform mix (Figure
An increase in external cloud usage was 17), the percentage of respondents that reported
reported by 75.4% of respondents, down from using only external public multi-tenant platforms
78.1% in 2019 and 78.9% in 2018, while 23.1% also declined from 27.8% in 2019 to 24.8% in
reported no change (Figure 13). 74.1% reported 2020. Interestingly, those using only internal
increases in the number of cloud features private or external public single-tenant platforms
purchased, while 24.9% reported no change. increased to 4.5% and 6.1% respectively.
Respondents reported that the average cost per Figure 18 shows the responses to the question:
seat for external cloud services increased by “What percentage of the external cloud-based
9.6%, the unit cost of processing power increased IT services are provided in each of the following
by 2.6% and storage unit costs increased by 1.9%. categories: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform
The percentage of organizations using external as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service
public multi-tenant cloud services decreased from (IaaS) and Process as a Service (PraaS)?” In 2020,
86.5% in 2019 to 83.2% in 2020 (Figure 14), the almost linear four-year decline in SaaS usage
while those using external public single-tenant and increases in both PaaS and IaaS continued.
and internal private cloud services remained However, this does not necessarily mean less
relatively flat at 51.9% and 53.5% respectively. actual use or spending because both the total
95.5% of respondents reported using some form amount of cloud services and spending have been
of external cloud and 53.5% reported using an increasing during this period. There continues to
internal private cloud. be little interest in cloud-based PraaS.

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Figure 18: Percentage of External Cloud Services Delivered, by Service Category, 2017-
2020

3.5.2. Shared Services for IT Delivery. possibility that someone in the organization
Similar to 2017-2019, 90.4% of organizations may be responsible for cybersecurity as well
reported using at least some shared IT services as other IT or non-IT functions. Overall, 84.5%
in 2020. At 62.7%, the average amount of all IT have someone in charge of cybersecurity yet
services delivered as a shared service in 2020 is only 50.4% have a dedicated CISO or equivalent
similar to that reported in 2019 (62.3%). Figure position (Table 10). This represents a slight
19 shows the changing pattern of usage of IT uptick in organizations with CISOs; and for those
shared services over the past five years. without, the majority have someone with some
Organizations delivering some IT services via formal cybersecurity responsibilities.
shared services were asked “What percentage In past years, large organizations were far
of IT shared services are provided in each of more likely to have a CISO than smaller ones.
the following [cloud] categories.” Continuing a While this trend is certainly continuing, when
downward trend that began in 2017 (Figure 20), including organizations with positions sharing
SaaS dropped 8.2% from 64.3%% in 2019 to cybersecurity responsibility with another IT or
59.0% in 2020. PraaS also dropped from 5.5% in non-IT role, the gap between large and small
2019 to 2.7%, while IaaS and PaaS continued on organizations has closed considerably (Figure
upward trends. 21).
While the majority of CISOs report to the CIO,
3.6. Cybersecurity Practices the percentage dropped below 60% for the first
Since 2017, respondents have been asked time in 2020 (Table 11). This, combined with
whether they have a chief information security the increase in CISOs reporting to COOs and
officer (CISO) or equivalent position. In 2020, CFOs, may signal that cybersecurity is beginning
this question was rephrased to account for the

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Figure 19: Percentage of All IT services Delivered as Shared Services, 2016-2020

Figure 20: Percentage of IT Shared Services by Category, 2017-2020

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Table 10: Top IT Outsourcing Services, 2018-2020a

2017 2018 2019 2020
Outsourcing Category
(n=298) (n=182) (n= 175) (n=550)
Yes, a dedicated position (CISO, VP of Security, etc.) 46.2% 45.5% 48.8% 50.4%

Yes, someone in the IT function who also has non-

31.6%
cybersecurity responsibilities a
Yes, someone outside of the IT function who also has
2.5%
non-cybersecurity responsibilities a
No, there is no one with formal cyber authority/
13.8%
responsibility a
No b 52.8% 53.1% 49.7% 48.0%
I Don't Know 1.0% 1.3% 1.5% 1.6%
a New options were presented in 2020.
b 2017-2019 respondents were stating “no” in response to having a dedicated person in
charge of cybersecurity. For comparison purposes in 2020, the sums of all responses other
than having a dedicated position for cybersecurity have been calculated.

Figure 21: Cybersecurity Responsibility by Organization Revenue, 2020 (n=390)

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Table 11: To Whom Does the CISO (or Equivalent) Report? (2018-2020)
% of Organizations
Position 2018 2019 202
(n=302) (n=256) (n=273)
CIO (Information) 62.3% 62.9% 57.5%
CEO/President 10.9% 12.1% 11.4%
CTO (Technology) 7.3% 9.0% 9.9%
Other 5.6% 4.3% 8.4%
COO (Operating) 5.6% 4.7% 6.6%
CFO/Treasurer/Finance 4.0% 2.0% 4.4%
Board/Board Member 0.3% 3.5% 1.8%
CLO (Legal) 2.3% 0.8%
Internal Audit 1.0% 0.4%
CCO (Compliance) 0.3% 0.0%
CAO (Administrative) 0.3% 0.4%

Figure 22: Average Cybersecurity Readiness, 2020 (n=541)

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Table 12: Percentage of Organizations Considering Cybersecurity when Doing _____,

2017-2020
Business Process 2017 2018 2019 2020 %
Change
N (unique organizations) 668 627 501 527 2018-19
IT Procurement/Purchasing 71.9% 75.3% 68.1% 76.3% 6.1%
Software/Systems Development 81.9% 82.0% 78.2% 83.1% 1.5%
IT Change Management (Hardware & Software) 78.3% 79.4% 73.9% 82.2% 5.0%
Developing Business Strategy 54.6% 51.8% 52.3% 53.9% -1.3%
Other 3.4% 4.0% 6.2% 3.8% 11.8%

Figure 23: Cybersecurity Training and Cyberinsurance, 2016-2020

to transition out of IT to become a broader correlate with cybersecurity leadership (Figure

organizational issue. Nevertheless, 67.4% of 22).
CISOs still report inside the IT organization to the In line with the marginal increases in
CIO or CTO, down from 71.9% in 2019. cybersecurity readiness and organizations
The average reported cybersecurity readiness with a CISO, improvements were reported in
of the 527 responding organizations was 3.32 the integration of cybersecurity into key IT
(out of 5), indicating that the typical organization and business processes (Table 12). Viewed
is only “moderately ready.” This is up slightly from over the last four years, however, the level of
the two preceding years (3.17 and 3.19 in 2019 improvements is concerning, especially given
and 2018). Though no discernible difference that cybersecurity ranks as a top IT management
in readiness scores was observed10across concern and investment priority over this same
organization size, readiness does appear to period (Tables 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

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Figure 24: Effectiveness of Cybersecurity Training in Relation to Readiness to Handle

Threats, 2020 (n=450)

On a positive note, the adoption of mandatory 4.1. Performance Measures for Internal
cybertraining programs and cyberinsurance and Outsourced IT
coverage continued their steady upward 624 organizations provided performance
trajectories in 2020 (Figure 23). Nevertheless, the measures for internal IT operations and 421
effectiveness of these training programs has not provided performance measures for outsourced
increased by much. On a Likert scale of 1 to 5, the IT operations. Table 13 ranks the performance
average response in 2020 was 3.52, up less than measures by the percentage selecting them while
2.0% from 3.46 in 2019. also designating them according to their primary
There is, however, a noticeable difference focus: IT (I), Business Operations (B), Strategic
between those organizations reporting that (S) or a combination of these.
they are “very” or “extremely ready” to handle The top performance measures for both
cybersecurity threats compared to those that internal IT and outsourced IT are fairly well
are not (Figure 24). Given that employees are in aligned, with many IT operational measures
fact a major cybervulnerability, it is reasonable appearing in the top 10 for each. Unsurprisingly,
to believe that better training leads to better strategic measures such as “Value of IT to the
preparedness. Business” and “IT’s Contribution to Strategy”
are ranked much higher for internal IT than
4. IT Performance outsourced IT.
Measurement 4.2. Performance Measures for CIOs
Respondents were asked to “Select up to Table 13 above provides a view of
five (5) of your organization’s most important performance measures for internal and
performance measures” from a list of 34 for outsourced IT using the organization dataset. For
each of three separate categories: ‘internal IT,’ the first time in this report, we turn to the CIO
‘outsourced IT’ [if applicable] and ‘your personal dataset to better understand how CIOs, as well
performance.’” as their perspectives on internal and outsourced

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Table 13: Performance Measures for Internal and Outsourced IT, 2020
Percentage Selecting a
Focus

Performance Measure Internal IT Outsourced IT

(n=624 organizations) (n=421)
I Availability / Up Time 1 (51.6%) 1 (41.1%)
I/B Customer/User Satisfaction --- Internal Users 2 (38.1%) 3 (23.0%)
I/B Cost Control / Reduction --- IT 3 (29.6%) 2 (29.9%)
S Value of IT to the Business 4 (23.9%) 13 (9.0%)
I Help Desk Performance 5 (23.6%) 4 (20.2%)
I/B Cybersecurity Related 5 (23.6%) 6 (17.8%)
B Customer/User Satisfaction --- External Users 7 (19.9%) 11 (10.5%)
I/B IT Service Quality 9 (16.7%) 5 (21.1%)
I Projects Delivered – on Time 8 (17.9%) 8 (17.3%)
I/B IT Service Quality 9 (16.5%) 7 (17.6)
I Projects Delivered --- on Budget 10 (13.9%) 9 (16.4%)
I/B IT Budget Compliance 11 (12.8%) 17 (6.7%)
S IT’s Contribution to Strategy 12 (11.7%) 24 (3.6%)
B Productivity Improvement --- Business 13 (11.5%) 21 (4.8%)
I/B IT Spending --- as % of Revenue 14 (11.4%) 20 (5.0%)
B Cost Control / Reduction --- Business 13 (11.5%) 16 (6.9%s)
B/S Innovative New Ideas 15 (9.1%) 22 (4.5%)
B Improved Decision Making 17 (8.5%) 28 (2.1%)
B Total Cost of Ownership 18 (7.7%) 12 (9.7%)
I/B Productivity Improvement --- IT 19 (7.4%) 14 (8.8%)
S Increases in New Products or Services 20 (7.2%) 25 (3.1%)
I Headcount Reduction --- IT 21 (5.8%) 15 (8.6%)
B Project Return on Investment 21 (5.8%) 15 (8.6%)
I Time to Market --- IT 23 (5.3%) 17 (6.7%)
I SLA Target Compliance 24 (5.1%) 5 (19.0%)
I Software Quality / Defect Rates in Software 24 (5.1%) 10 (12.1%)
B Time to Market --- Business 26 (5%) 25 (3.1%)
S Revenue Growth 26 (5%) 31 (0.7%)
I IT Employee Retention 24 (5.7%) 32 (1.4%)
S Profit Growth 28 (4.8%) 31 (0.7%)
I IT Employee Retention 29 (4%) 29 (4%)
B Head Count Reduction – Business 30 (3.4%) 27 (2.9%)
S Return on Equity 31 (2.4%) 28 (2.1%)
B Employee 28 (4.5%) 21 (5.3%)
I IT Spending – per Employee 31 (2.4%) 31 (0.7%)
- NONE / No Measures are Used 33 (1.8%) 23 (3.8%)
B Customer/User Satisfaction – External Suppliers 34 (0.0%) 34 (0.0%)
a Duplicate rank numbers indicate a tie.
Focus: I=IT, B=Business Operations, S=Strategic

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Table 14: Performance Measures for CIOs and Internal and Outsourced IT, 2018-2020
Percentage Selecting a
Focus Performance Measure My Personal Perfor-
Internal IT Outsourced IT
mance

Year 2018 2019 2020 2018 2019 2020 2018 2019 2020
N (CIOs) 418 376 345 418 376 345 276 252 225
I/B Customer/User Satisfaction (Internal Users) 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3
S Value of IT to the Business 2 2 2 6 5 6 19 13 13
S IT’s Contribution to Strategy 3 3 3 10 10 13 30 22 24
I/B Cost Control/Reduction (IT) 5 6 4 5 7 4 6 4 2
I/B Cybersecurity Related 6 7 5 4 3 5 3 7 6
I Availability/Up Time 4 4 6 1 1 1 1 1 1
I/B IT Budget Compliance 7 8 7 11 14 12 11 16 15
B Customer/User Satisfaction (External Users) 12 11 8 8 9 7 13 15 10
B Productivity Improvements (Business) 13 10 9 12 11 10 19 10 17
B/S Innovative New Ideas 8 5 10 13 12 14 17 18 21
S Projects Delivered on Time 10 9 11 8 6 8 4 3 9
B Improved Decision Making 11 13 12 17 16 16 28 25 29
I Help Desk Performance 15 14 13 3 4 3 6 9 4
I/B IT Spending as % of Revenue 16 18 14 15 18 14 22 30 20
I Projects Delivered on Budget 14 15 15 14 13 11 8 5 7
I/B IT Service Quality 9 12 16 7 8 9 4 6 7

S Increases in New Products or Services 18 17 17 18 20 18 14 19 26

B Cost Control/Reduction (Business) 22 16 18 18 15 17 15 16 16

B Total Cost of Ownership 23 19 19 21 17 19 12 12 11
S Profit Growth 20 20 19 23 27 25 28 25 31
B Productivity Improvements (IT) 26 23 21 23 22 22 19 14 17
I IT Employee Retention 17 22 22 26 28 28 34 32 31
B Project Return on Investment 21 25 23 23 25 25 18 21 19
S Revenue Growth 18 21 24 16 19 19 26 28 29
S Return on Equity 30 28 25 31 32 33 33 30 26
B Time to Market --- Business 25 26 26 28 25 22 24 22 24
I SLA Target Compliance 29 26 27 26 21 22 9 8 5
I Software Quality/Defect Rates 26 29 27 20 24 19 10 10 11

I Time to Market (IT) 23 23 29 22 23 28 16 19 21

B Head Count Reduction (IT) 33 29 29 32 29 27 26 25 13

- NONE/No Measures are Used 30 31 31 29 30 30 22 24 21
I/B IT Spending per Employee 28 32 32 30 33 30 30 29 33
I Head Count Reduction (Business) 54 32 33 33 30 30 32 32 28
Customer/User Satisfaction (External
- 32 34 34 33 34 34 25 34 34
Suppliers)
a Duplicate rank numbers indicate a tie.
Focus: I=IT, B=Business Operations, S=Strategic

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Table 15: To Whom Does the CIO Report, by Percentage of Respondents, 2011-2020
Outsourcing
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Avg.
Category
CEO 49.0% 43.0% 44.7% 44.2% 42.9% 46.3% 41.4% 45.9% 50.2% 46.7% 45.4%

CFO 32.0% 27.0% 27.1% 25.7% 29.0% 28.6% 28.1% 25.8% 24.9% 26.3% 27.6%

COO/CAO 12.0% 19.0% 14.4% 15.0% 16.8% 13.8% 19.0% 17.9% 14.0% 17.9% 16.0%
Board/Board
New Question 0.96% 1.20% 0.50% 1.0% 0.7% 1.8% 1.0%
Member
Business Unit
5.0% 10% 9.2% 9.4% 4.8% 7.1% 5.6% 4.5% 6.1% 2.2% 6.4%
Executive
Other (IT) a 1.3% 0.7% 1.7% 1.8% 2.8%
2.0% 2.0% 4.6% 5.8% 5.5% 3.0%
Other (non-IT) a 3.8% 4.2% 2.4% 3.3% 3.4%
Total Other 2.0% 2.0% 4.6% 5.8% 5.5% 3.0% 5.1% 4.9% 4.1% 5.1% 4.2%
n = number of responding CIOs 284 448 417 486 426 403 274
a In 2017, the “Other” category was split into two new categories: Other (IT)
and Other (non-IT).

Figure 25: Average Job Tenure of CIOs, 2011-2020

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Figure 26: To Whom Does the CIO Report, 2011-2020

IT performance assessment, are evaluated (Table 5. CIO Tenure, Reporting,

14). In 2020, 345 CIO responses were received for
“Personal Performance” and “Internal IT,” and 225 Background and Activities
were received for “Outsourced IT.” The average age of the 258 CIOs who
Metrics used to evaluate the performance of responded to this question was 52.3 (standard
CIOs remain relatively unchanged over the past deviation of 8.2 and median of 52) and 83.7%
three years and include a mix of IT, business and were male, down from 84.7% in 2019. Average
strategic measures. Customer/User Satisfaction tenure (Figure 25) as the top IT person remained
(External Users) and Productivity Improvements steady at 6.3 years (standard deviation of 6.2
(Business) entered the top 10 in 2020, while and median of 4). Over 32.4% of the responding
Projects Delivered on Time and IT Service Quality CIOs have been in their position for seven years
fell out of the top 10. Cost Control (IT), typically in or more, while 44.1% have held their position for
the top 10, rose to 4th (from 6th last year and 5th three years or less.
in 2018), while Innovation fell from 5th to 10th. Table 15 shows CIO reporting relationships
These shifts in how CIOs are evaluated appear over the past decade. In 2020, 92.2% reported
consistent with other shifts in response to Covid to CEOs, CFOs or COOs, up from 89.1% in 2019.
challenges. The percentage reporting to CEOs fell 7.0% from
50.2% in 2019 to 46.7% in 2020, while reporting
to CFOs increased 5.6% from the 10-year low

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Figure 27: CIOs Prior Position—IT vs. Non-IT, 2011-2020

Figure 28: CIOs Prior Position—Outside vs. Within Current Organization, 2011-2020

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Figure 29: CIO Prior Employment, 2011-2020

in 2019 of 24.9% to 26.3% in 2020. Figure 26 23.4% from 14.1% in 2019 to 17.4% in 2020.
displays the data in Table 15 graphically. Nevertheless, this is less than half of the 36.6%
who moved up from their current internal IT
5.1. CIO Previous Employment role in 2012. The number of CIOs coming from IT
As shown in Figure 27, the five-year decline positions outside the organization also increased
in the number of CIOs coming from prior IT to 57.8% in 2020 from 54.9% in 2019. The
positions has perhaps come to an end. The percentage of CIOs coming from non-IT positions
percentage of CIOs coming from IT jobs in 2020 inside or outside their current organization both
was 76.5%, up 11% from 68.9% in 2019. fell.
Figure 28 shows that the percentage of CIOs
coming from outside organizations seems also 5.2. With Whom CIOs Spend their Time
to have flattened in recent years. In 2020, 80.2% The job of the CIO is complex and involves
came from outside their current organizations. interaction with people both inside and outside
While this is up from 2019 (79.3%), it remains the organization. Figure 30 shows the average
below the 10-year high in 2018 (80.5%). percentage of a CIO’s time spent with different
Nevertheless, such a high number is troubling groups of people over the period 2016-2020.
both in terms of the “bench strength” and On average in 2020, the 305 responding CIOs
business acumen of IT departments. spent over three times as much time with people
Figure 29 shows a more granular view of in their own organization than with those from
CIO prior employment data. Since 2015, the other organizations (69.7% vs. 21.1%). Perhaps
percentage of CIOs coming from IT roles both the most significant trend is the increase in time
inside and outside their current organizations spent with C-level executives. From 2016 to
has been in decline. However, in 2020, this 2020, the percentage of time spent with C-level
trend seemed to either flatten or reverse. colleagues increased by 38.9% from 17.5%
The percentage of CIOs coming from their (2016) to 24.3% (2020). Over the same period,
organization’s IT department increased time working alone steadily decreased and time

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Figure 30: Average Percentage of CIO Time Spent Interacting with _____, 2016-2020

spent with individuals in the other categories has increases of 8.1% in time spent with CFOs and
remained relatively flat. 7.0% with HR leadership. Time with the CEO, COO
CIOs spending any time with “C-level (non-IT) and the board all decreased.
personnel” were also asked about the frequency Figure 31 illustrates the five-year trends
of those interactions—specifically, if they met in C-level and board interactions. Though the
daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually with upward trend in C-level interaction continued,
C-level executives and/or board members. Table there was a significant year-over-year increase
16 summarizes their responses and highlights in time spent with the CFO and decreases in time
the percentage of CIOs reporting “at least weekly” spent with the COO or CEO. Interactions with the
interactions (i.e., daily plus weekly), as well as CAO and the board also decreased in 2020. It is
the percentage of change between 2019 and plausible that increases in CIO time spent with
2020 in at-least-weekly interactions. There was CFOs, CLOs and HR are Covid related.
a significant increase in the amount of time spent
(16.4%) with chief legal officers (CLOs) and a 5.3. What CIOs Do with Their Time
22.4% decrease year-over-year in time spent To understand how CIOs spend their time,
with individual board members. There were also a preliminary question asked about the overall

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Figure 31: Trends in “At Least Weekly” C-Level Interaction

percentage of time spent on three general activity Separate activity lists were then provided for
categories: Business (Non-IT), IT-Related and each of the three categories, and respondents
Other Work-Related Activities. While there were were asked to state which three activities they
significant changes in how CIOs allocated time spent the most time on. Setting IT Priorities and
across these three categories between 2015 Strategy remains by far the top time priority for
and 2016, allocations from 2017 to 2020 have over 75% of CIOs, followed by Innovation for
remained relatively steady (Figure 32). The IT, Evangelist for IT, IT Governance and Project
average percentage of CIO time allocated to IT- Management (Table 17).
Related Activities fell from 61.6% in 2018 to In 2020, the top Non-IT Business Activity
61.1% in 2020, while time allocated to Non-IT- for CIOs was Organizational Priorities and
Related Business Activities rose slightly from Strategy (Table 18), followed by Knowing Needs
29.0% into 2018 to 29.3% in 2020. Similarly, time of Internal IT Customers in second place and
allocated to Other Job and Work-Related Activities Knowing Needs of Organization’s Customers in
also increased slightly from 9.4% in 2018 to 9.6% third.
in 2020.

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 16: Percentage of CIOs Interacting with C-Level Peers, by Frequency, 2015-2020
Year Daily Weekly At least % Change 2017-18 Monthly Quarterly Annually None n=
2015 20.1% 43.5% 63.6% 24.6% 7.3% 1.2% 3.3% 423
2016 25.2% 44.1% 69.3% 19.3% 7.9% 2.2% 1.2% 404
2017 24.4% 42.2% 66.6% 20.9% 8.5% 1.5% 2.5% 398
CEO -3.2%
2018 25.4% 43.3% 68.7% 21.5% 6.0% 1.8% 2.1% 386
2019 29.8% 45.9% 75.7% 15.4% 6.2% 0.7% 2.0% 305
2020 29.2% 44.0% 73.3% 18.8% 6.5% 0.4% 1.1% 277
2015 22.0% 35.7% 57.7% 12.5% 2.4% 0.5% 27.0% 423
2016 31.1% 43.7% 74.8% 12.3% 2.8% 0.3% 9.7% 318
2017 31.7% 40.0% 71.7% 12.9% 4.0% 0.3% 11.1% 350
COO -4.9%
2018 33.9% 41.8% 75.8% 10.6% 1.5% 0.6% 11.5% 330
2019 31.4% 44.8% 76.2% 10.7% 2.7% 0.8% 9.6% 261
2020 29.6% 42.9% 72.5% 16.2% 2.0% 0.8% 8.5% 247
2015 31.0% 52.2% 83.2% 9.9% 2.8% 0.2% 3.8% 423
2016 33.8% 49.6% 83.4% 11.8% 3.1% 0.0% 1.8% 391
2017 31.0% 50.9% 81.9% 12.9% 3.1% 0.8% 1.3% 387
CFO 8.1%
2018 34.5% 50.0% 84.5% 9.2% 3.5% 1.1% 1.6% 368
2019 30.9% 49.7% 80.5% 14.1% 3.0% 0.7% 1.7% 298
2020 32.3% 54.6% 87.0% 10.4% 1.1% 0.0% 1.5% 269
2017 44.7% 13.2% 58.0% 4.7% 2.3% 0.4% 34.6% 257
2018 41.6% 17.6% 59.2% 2.6% 2.1% 1.3% 34.8% 233
CTO -0.5%
2019 46.0% 16.6% 62.9% 8.5% 0.9% 0.9% 27.0% 211
2020 42.6% 20.0% 62.6% 5.1% 0.5% 0.0% 31.8% 195
2017 16.7% 18.0% 34.8% 9.9% 0.9% 0.4% 54.1% 233
2018 11.5% 25.1% 36.6% 10.6% 2.6% 0.4% 49.8% 227
CAO -6.4%
2019 19.0% 26.7% 45.6% 6.7% 1.5% 0.0% 46.2% 195
2020 14.0% 28.7% 42.7% 10.1% 1.1% 0.6% 45.5% 178
2015 13.5% 30.0% 43.5% 19.4% 6.4% 1.2% 29.6% 423
2016 14.6% 40.4% 55.0% 24.2% 5.0% 1.9% 14.0% 322
2017 16.7% 38.4% 55.1% 19.1% 7.9% 0.9% 17.0% 341
CMO -0.4%
2018 17.3% 39.0% 56.2% 21.7% 6.7% 0.6% 14.7% 313
2019 20.2% 36.0% 56.2% 22.9% 3.1% 1.6% 16.3% 258
2020 13.6% 42.4% 56.0% 21.0% 5.3% 0.0% 17.7% 243
2015 3.8% 25.5% 29.3% 25.5% 9.7% 5.9% 29.6% 423
2016 7.5% 32.6% 40.1% 26.0% 12.9% 5.1% 15.9% 334
2017 9.5% 29.2% 38.8% 20.9% 16.9% 5.8% 17.5% 325
CLO 16.4%
2018 7.2% 32.7% 39.9% 25.2% 10.8% 3.9% 20.3% 306
2019 9.3% 30.8% 40.1% 23.1% 9.7% 5.3% 21.9% 247
2020 7.9% 38.8% 46.7% 20.3% 11.9% 5.3% 15.9% 227
2015 1.9% 3.8% 5.7% 14.7% 31.9% 17.5% 30.3% 423
2016 1.1% 3.7% 4.8% 17.0% 37.0% 15.4% 25.8% 367

Board of 2017 2.4% 5.1% 7.6% 14.4% 30.9% 20.9% 26.3% 369
-2.4%
Directors 2018 2.9% 5.4% 8.3% 12.6% 32.6% 19.7% 26.9% 350
2019 6.6% 5.0% 11.6% 16.6% 33.4% 16.2% 22.2% 302
2020 1.1% 10.2% 11.3% 14.3% 34.7% 16.2% 23.4% 265
* Low response on “individual board member” in 2016 may skew results

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 16: Percentage of CIOs Interacting with C-Level Peers, by Frequency, 2015-2020
Year Daily Weekly At least % Change 2017-18 Monthly Quarterly Annually None n=
2015 3.1% 7.6% 10.7% 13.0% 18.2% 13.5% 44.7% 423
2016 19.7% 29.6% 49.3% 19.7% 8.5% 0.0% 22.5% 71*
Single 2017 2.3% 8.8% 11.1% 16.7% 19.6% 13.7% 38.9% 306
board -22.4%
member 2018 4.1% 6.6% 10.7% 15.9% 18.3% 17.6% 37.6% 290
2019 3.2% 8.1% 11.3% 16.9% 23.0% 15.7% 33.1% 248
2020 2.6% 6.1% 8.8% 15.4% 21.1% 15.8% 39.9% 228
2018 16.2% 51.4% 67.6% 24.9% 4.3% 0.5% 2.7% 370
HR 2019 15.7% 48.1% 63.9% 7.0% 26.6% 4.4% 0.7% 4.4% 293
2020 15.6% 52.8% 68.4% 25.3% 3.7% 0.7% 1.9% 269
* Low response on “individual board member” in 2016 may skew results

Table 17: IT-Related Work Activities on Which CIOs Spend Their Time

IT Activities 2020 (n=295) 2018* (n=269) 2017* (n=430) 2016* (n=430) 2015* (n=369)

IT Priorities and
1 (75.3%) 1 1 1 1
Strategy

Innovation for IT 2 (35.3%) 4 5 2

Evangelist for IT 3 (31.9%) 2 2 6 6

IT Governance 4 (29.2%) 6 3 5 4
Project
5 (25.1%) 3 4 2 3
Management
Resource Allocation
6 (22.7%) 10 10 10 7
and Budgeting
IT Operations
& Facilities 7 (19.0%) 5 6 4 2
Management
IT Vendor
8 (17.6%) 8 9 8
Management
IT Architecture 9 (16.9%) 7 7 7
IT HR and Talent
9 (11.5%) 9 8 9 5
Management
Technical Research 10 (7.1%) 11 11 11 8
Software
11 (6.8%) 12 12 12 9
Development
* 2015-2018 were measured by individual time allocations (%)

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Table 18: Non-IT Business-Related Work Activities on Which CIOs Spend Their Time

2020 2018* 2017* 2016* 2015*

Business (Non-IT) Activities
(n=291) (n=369) (n=430) (n=430) (n=427)

Organization Priorities and

1 (65.3%) 3 4 3
Strategy
Knowing Needs of the Internal
2 (56.7%) 1 3 1 2
IT Customers
Knowing Needs of
3 (51.5%) 2 1 2 4
Organization’s Customers
Managing Organizational
4 (46.0%) 4 6 4 3
Change
Organizational or Business
5 (31.3%) 7 7 6
Innovation
Evangelist for the Organization 6 (24.1.7%) 5 5 5 7
Organization Architecture 7 (9.6%) 6 9 7 1
Knowing Needs of
8 (8.2%) 9 2 8
Organization’s Suppliers
Organization Research 9 (5.1%) 7 8 9 6
* 2015-2018 were measured by individual time allocations (%)

6. Summary and Conclusions 2020 were similar to 2019: Cloud, Analytics,

Cybersecurity, Application Development and
In this year’s 40th anniversary SIM IT CRM (Table 4). However, when asked which
Issues and Trends Study, many trends remain technologies should get more investment or are
fairly stable, despite the onset of the Covid-19 most personally worrisome, the top five look
pandemic, which began in February 2020. Data quite different (Table 5).
collection for the 2020 study began just two IT spending, as a percentage of organization
months following the pandemic’s onset in April revenue, came in at 6.9%, the highest figure in 10
and continued for the usual nine weeks until June, years and 27% higher than 2019 (Figure 2). It is
so the effects of the pandemic on corporate IT likely that pandemic-induced revenue reductions
practices were still in their early stages when the accounted for much of this increase, given that
responses were returned. Next year’s study may IT budgets increased by only 2.9%, on average,
find still other effects, some more pronounced, between 2019 and 2020. After years of increases,
and perhaps indications of more lasting changes. the number of organizations decreasing their IT
In 2020, the top five IT management issues spending in 2020 more than doubled (Figure 3)
for organizations were the same as last year: and the average percentage increase fell by more
Cybersecurity, Alignment, Analytics, Digital than 55%. Both these changes are most likely due
Transformation and Compliance & Regulations to the pandemic.
(Table 1). The top two issues keeping IT leaders Most organizations reported increases in both
“up at night” matched the top two organization head count and employee salaries in 2020, though
concerns (Cybersecurity and Alignment), with the increases were lower than in recent years
Business Continuity, IT Leadership’s Creditability (Figures 6 and 7). Average IT employee turnover
and IT Skills Shortage ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th remained stable at just over 8% (Figure 8). In
(Table 2). The largest five IT investments in the five years since 2015, IT budgets increased

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The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

Figure 32: How CIOs Spend their Time, 2015-2018 -Level Interaction

by more than 26% while the percentage of IT 40% in the last four years (Figure 30). In terms of
spending allocated to Employees declined by assessing CIO performance, the most used criteria
14.0%, and by 17.8% for Hardware, Software and are Internal User Satisfaction, IT’s Business Value,
Facilities. Over the same period, the percentage IT’s Contribution to Strategy, IT Cost Control and
allocated to Cloud Services increased by 107.8% Cybersecurity (Table 14).
(Figure 4). Cybersecurity continues to be a source Between 2015 and 2019, there has been a
of concern for most organizations (Tables 1, 2, steady decrease in the percentage of CIOs who
3, 4 and 5), yet only half of organizations report came from an IT background. But that changed in
having a single person in charge of it (Table 10). 2020, with an 11.0% increase to 76.5% (Figure
Nevertheless, the percentage of organizations 27). Strangely, 80.2% of CIOs are recruited from
requiring cybersecurity training increased by outside the organization, up by more than 37%
35.9% between 2016 and 2020 (Figure 23). since 2012 (Figure 28). Companies apparently
The average job tenure of the CIOs who do not believe they have internal IT talent to
participated in this study is a little over six years promote into the top IT position (Figure 29). The
(Figure 25). Almost 47% report to the CEO, 26.3% resulting “musical chairs” between organization
to the CFO and 17.9% to the COO (Table 15 and seats makes it hard to build organizational
Figure 26). Also, CIOs are spending more of their loyalty if talented midlevel IT managers feel that
time with members of the C-suite, up by almost they must leave their current organizations to

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 The 2020 SIM IT Issues and Trends Study

advance their careers. This is an issue worthy of

management attention and further research.
Undoubtedly, the job of the CIO is increasingly
complex and the Covid pandemic has exacerbated
the situation. However, the pandemic has also
provided IT leaders with an opportunity to
shine, thanks to their concern for overall IT
preparedness in recent years (Table 5) and
concern for Business Continuity over at least the
past six years (Table 2), despite it not being a top-
five concern to their organizations (Table 1). The
need for CIOs to have a wide range of operational,
organizational and strategic management
capabilities (Table 14) arguably makes the job
of CIO the most challenging in any organization.
The fact that CIOs are spending more time with
other members of the C-suite and that CIO job
tenure remains high, indicates that many CIOs are
succeeding and becoming highly valued members
of their top management teams.

March 2021 (20:1) MIS Quarterly Executive 107

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