CIOs who participated in the study cited four areas they need to focus on most to bolster the performance of their IT organizations over the next three years: business process improvement, enterprise architecture, business relationship management and business intelligence.

For their IT departments to make improvements in these areas, CIOs need to stop worrying so much about aligning IT with the business and focus more on effectively managing the expectations that business leaders have for the IT organization, said McDonald. In addition, while many CIOs have helped their business peers make business process improvements within their divisions through various business/IT projects, it's an area that often goes neglected in the IT department itself.

Another area that CIOs have overlooked is the pending retirement of baby boomer IT workers, said McDonald. "It's something that everyone knows is going to come, but few people are taking proactive steps" to address.

According to the study, 86 percent of CIOs see innovation as critical to their companies' success, yet only 26 percent believe that their current level of innovation is good enough to meet their goals. The disconnect here, said McDonald, are the cultural barriers and institutional mindset that often thwarts innovation.

"If you believe your culture prohibits you from being innovative, then it's true," said McDonald. However, he sees a tremendous opportunity for CIOs, since they're in a position to help deliver the kind of information their organizations need to drive innovation.