CIOs face unprecedented pressure to meet competing needs, operating under both time and funding constraints. They must lead the IT function to develop and improve products and services even as budgets tighten, shift operations to respond to market demands in real time while minimizing risk, increase industry partnerships without giving competitors an edge, and maintain business as usual despite rapidly evolving threats. How well they rise to this challenge will matter to more than just the next earnings statement—it could determine the company’s future in the new era.

Our survey data was collected in January and February 2020, largely before the uncertainty that has followed. Even then, the CIOs in our survey saw their complex, deepening networks of partners and suppliers as critical to everything from efficiency to customer satisfaction and growth. Now normal operations have been disrupted with astonishing speed, and weathering the storm will require organizations to effectively control, secure, and leverage their partnerships. The results of this research illuminate the tactics CIOs must use to survive and thrive in the new era.