Released Thursday, the study revealed that 87 percent of CIOs in Southeast Asian nations identified the ability to see patterns in vast amounts of data and extract insights, or business intelligence and analytics, as a crucial way to enhance their organizations' competitiveness. The survey polled 2,500 CIOs worldwide, 86 of whom were from Asean.
IBM CIO Pat Toole said in the report: "In this challenging economy, CIOs understand that analytics can be key to new growth markets, whether it's new ways to manage a utility grid or smarter healthcare systems.
"Managing and leveraging new intelligence through analytics is something that today's CIO is pursuing to gain competitive advantage in these new markets," he added.
Data reliability and security were also identified as increasingly urgent concerns, according to the report, with 76 percent of Asean CIOs planning to make additional investments in risk management and compliance.
Other priorities noted in the survey included virtualization projects, mobility solutions, and enhancing activities in customer and partner collaboration.
Asean CIOs better accepted
Compared to their global counterparts, Asean CIOs ranked more highly holding roles such as "visionary" and "value creator" and were perceived less as IT managers than their global counterparts.
In fact, the survey found that CIOs in this region were more often included as members of their company's senior management team, than their global counterparts. As a result, they were more actively involved, especially with their fellow leaders, in all aspects of setting their company's business strategy.
According to the study, CIOs in Asean who were employed in higher-growth organizations typically spent more time as "business vision enabler", while their peers in lower-growth organizations focus more on work as core technical services provider.