"IT spending, portfolio balance and the choice of technologies, talent, sourcing options, leadership, structure and governance must all be designed to make the business win. However, despite the need to grow, there is pressure on IT budgets," said Mr. Aron. "The survey showed CIOs expect their IT budgets to remain essentially flat (increasing 0.2 percent on average) in 2014. This is especially challenging since there is a need to both renovate the core of IT systems and services, and exploit new technology options."

CIOs report that a quarter of IT spending will happen outside the IT budget in 2014 — and that is the spending they know about; the reality may be significantly higher. This is a direct result of the new digital opportunities that are more entwined with customer and colleague experiences, and that may, in some cases, reflect concerns that the IT organization is not fast enough or otherwise ready for more digital opportunities.

"There is an inherent tension between doing IT right and doing IT fast, doing IT safely and doing IT innovatively, working the plan and adapting," said Mr. Waller. "The second era of enterprise IT has been all about planning IT right, doing IT right, being predictable and creating value while maximizing control and minimizing risk. However, to capture digital opportunities created by the third era, CIOs need to deal with speed, innovation and uncertainty. This requires bimodal capability — operating two modes of enterprise IT — conventional, or "safe and steady" IT, and a faster, more agile nonlinear mode."
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