The report highlights that almost a quarter of CIOs believe senior executives see IT as a cost of doing business, rather than as a means to grow the organisation, make processes more efficient and introduce greater agility and competitiveness.

As a result, it is not surprising that only 17 percent of CIOs are always involved in the strategic decision making process, impeding the digital strategic thinking of the senior leadership team.

Professor Joe Peppard, Director of the Information Systems Research Centre at Cranfield School of Management, believes senior managers must acknowledge that the value from IT comes not from technology, but from the ability to manage and exploit information. "A lot of organisations just wouldn't be able to survive for very long without their IT systems," says Peppard. "CIOs are transitioning into the role of brokers of IT services; they will also be orchestrators of decisions concerning the architecture of the enterprise, innovation with IT, compliance and policies, and will have closer involvement with line of business managers in realising value from their digital strategies."

Peppard believes that by working in this way, both the IT organisation and the CIO role will evolve and be able to lead discussions and education about how they drive the business forward through IT innovation.

Earlier this year, CA also commissioned a on the CIO role, concluding that there was increasing need for CIOs to go beyond maintaining IT to deliver business services to ensure that their organisations stay agile.