Every quarter, The CIO Group creates in-depth research exclusive to its members. Research topics are driven by member interests and feature case studies of CIOs who share best practices in the research space. By interviewing approximately 25 member and nonmember CIOs from large organizations, as well as professional and academic experts on the subject matter, the research projects provide CIO Group members access to the successful experience of their peers across several industries in the public and private sectors.

This research highlights strategies for success in this new global arena. CIOs are facing challenges and opportunities while operating in a highly competitive global economy. We interviewed CIOs who shared lessons learned in a broad spectrum of global scenarios. This research addresses:

• What to do when an acquisition puts the headquarters on the opposite side of the globe from the core IT team.
• How to transform a local IT operation into a global machine following a change of direction from the board.
• How to adjust when the organization's revenue balance tips heavily toward nonlocal markets.
• How to manage suppliers in the public sector when they develop and deliver products and services in a globally distributed development model.

  Download Report Brief — "A CIOs Guide To Success In The Global Economy" (PDF, 344 KB) »

This research identifies best practices for using collaboration tools within the organization for strategic advantage. We examined some of the most effective tools used for collaboration and the scenarios in which they were used to fulfill a strategic goal. This research identifies:

• How to unify a global employee base.
• What can be done to enable cross-silo collaboration among business units.
• How to locate expertise within the organization to improve products or customer service.

  Download Report Brief — "The CIO's Role In Enterprise Collaboration: Tapping The Groundswell" (PDF, 344 KB) »

This research analyzes the current internal and external pressures on the IT house that are threatening its effectiveness and stability. CIOs are acknowledging these changes and proactively restructuring for the future to increase IT-business fusion, decrease costs, and increase customer satisfaction. This research identifies:

• The emerging roles and skill sets desired in the IT organization of the future.
• Three organizational models that CIOs have chosen to guide their restructures.
• Best practices for undergoing a successful restructure.

  Download Report Brief — "Structuring The IT Organization For The Future" (PDF, 191 KB) »

This research focuses on how successful CIOs and chief marketing officers (CMOs) are partnering to build a thorough understanding of the customer to deliver an optimal customer experience and profit from customer information. As organizations leverage marketing and customer empowerment technologies to gain competitive advantage, the marketing-IT relationship becomes even more critical. The research addresses:

• How CIO-CMO pairs have forged partnerships and provided competitive advantage to their organizations.
• What best practices they follow to partner successfully.
• What strategies the public sector has undertaken to serve customers using technology.

 Download Report Brief — "Partnering For Success: The CIO-CMO Relationship" (PDF, 250 KB) »

This research identifies six key steps to formalizing and executing successful vendor management. It is important for CIOs to establish vendor management as a function — complete with processes, templates, tools, and a governance structure. As a formalized function, vendor management can provide significant benefits to the CIO and the organization at large. This research helps to identify:

• The six steps that CIOs should consider when formalizing their vendor management function.
• The variety of ways CIOs have developed and organized this function.
• The core competencies that a vendor management leader should have.

 Download Report Brief — "Six Steps To Successful Vendor Management" (PDF, 315 KB) »

This research demonstrates that CIOs can move beyond alignment to a state of IT-business fusion in which the lines between technology and business blur. Accomplishing this fusion is important for CIOs to improve existing processes, introduce new products, and propose business innovation using technology. However, research shows that progress toward this goal is slower than most CIOs realize. This research identifies:

• Best practices to help CIOs successfully fuse IT with the business.
• Common pitfalls and advancements that can drastically affect achieving this fused state.
• A self-diagnostic for CIOs to evaluate where they are along the path to fusion.

 Download Report Brief — "Beyond Alignment: The Path To Fusion" (PDF, 237 KB) »

This research identifies best practices for attracting, developing, and driving the performance of IT's most strategic asset: its people. Every year these strategies become more important as the workforce ages and top IT talent becomes scarcer. This research answers the following questions through in-depth case studies:

• What creative methods have CIOs employed to attract top talent?
• How do CIOs tailor their development programs to individuals to grow future business leaders?
• How do CIOs continue to drive individual and team performance for maximum effect?

 Download Report Brief — "Maximizing IT's Human Assets" (PDF, 148 KB) »