Top priorities for the CIO agenda in 2025

How might we digitalise and transform the business by leveraging innovation and new tech trends?

• Define a digital aspiration aligned with the business strategy, focusing on whether to innovate new products or services, optimise business operations or enhance the customer experience.
  
  
• Benefit from innovative solutions and new ways of working by committing to a culture that allows for experimentation, prototyping and failing fast.

How might we define a clear strategic direction that enables business strategy realisation?

• Commit to a strategic direction with a set of guiding principles that are based on the corporate strategy, as-is/to-be assessments and the focus, role and ambition of Digital/IT.
  
  
• Assess the maturity of current capabilities, incorporate industry best practices and ensure leadership alignment to identify how Digital/IT will create value in the short and long term.

How might we reposition IT as a true strategic partner and proactive value creator to the business?

• Collaborate closely with the business in driving the right strategic plays for IT by identifying relevant business cases to make value propositions for, in which Digital/IT is the catalyst for value creation.
  
  
• Aim to fully comprehend the business’ needs and perspectives and become recognised as a proactive, leading partner in generating new opportunities and value for the organisation.

How might we enable the business to move from use case exploration to real value capture and to sustain and operate new AI models efficiently?

• Develop an AI strategy that clearly identifies value pockets, test and validate options and assist the business to understand the full picture and convert tangible use cases to operations.
  
  
• Harness the vast value-creating capabilities of data by fuelling data and analytics capabilities and enabling the business with data-driven solutions and decision-making.

How might we get on top of sustainability by utilising the right digital solutions and preparing for ESG reporting and steering?

• Partner with the chief sustainability officer to pinpoint areas for improvement and implement the company's sustainability goals, which are increasingly data-focused and reliant on digital solutions.
  
  
• Leverage the power of digitalisation and develop a sustainability management and reporting solution to drive the sustainability agenda forward.

How might we become nimble in our IT architecture and, in parallel, gradually reduce technical debt to develop new digital services and capabilities?

• Commit to reducing your technical debt and system complexity while still aiming for a modernised enterprise architecture that enhances the ability to seize market opportunities and adapt to disruption.
  
  
• Leverage enterprise architecture to continuously bridge business needs, processes and requirements with the right combinations of IT solutions, capabilities and strategies across the enterprise.

How might we design and implement an IT operating model with transparent governance and swift decision-making to execute efficiently?

• Link and operationalise the digital strategy and organisation by developing an efficient operating model that can sustain the increased pace and impact of digital changes.
  
  
• Drive fast decision-making and clear governance aligned with business priorities, ultimately creating more value from digital investments by applying our IM Operating Model framework.

How might we foster a culture that creates energy, enables teamwork and shared accountabilities and makes the IT organisation the best place to work?

• Foster a collaborative culture of empowered teams with a shared purpose and high willingness to help each other and fix problems as they arise.
  
  
• Boost employee satisfaction by enabling professional and personal development with a dedicated focus on upskilling and reskilling as technologies and services change.

How might we optimise our IT spend by evolving our cloud capabilities and defining a strategic sourcing model across all our services?

• Define a delivery model with a balanced split between internal and external resources and use application rationalisation to simplify and reduce legacy systems to ultimately optimise IT costs.
  
  
• Apply cloud sourcing technologies to build new digital capabilities, e.g. by applying FinOps to efficiently manage cloud costs and boost decision-making, scalability and performance.

How might we increase resilience and ensure compliance with cybersecurity regulations such as NIS2 and DORA?

• In close collaboration with the business, balance cybersecurity risks and compliance by adhering to regulatory demands such as NIS2 and DORA and treating these as a new license to operate.
  
  
• Navigate digital and geopolitical threats and uncertainty by committing to a modernised cybersecurity strategy, improving business resilience, business continuity and risk mitigation.