If you want to know who really controls a corporate strategy, follow the money. And when it comes to digital business, there’s new evidence to suggest the CIO’s influence is waning.
Close to 70% of the money for social media investments, data visualization, experiments with wearables, Internet of things projects and other initiatives typically lumped under the digital banner comes from outside the IT budget, according to consulting firm PwC’s latest Digital IQ survey. That’s a big increase from the prior year. Increasingly, the CIO’s focus will be “limited” to internal responsibilities, the PwC data suggest.
Basically that means defining digital innovation is an executive team sport that should include everyone with a C-level title, said Matt Egol, partner and chief strategy office of digital services at PwC. “The CEO is far more involved.” That was the case for almost three-quarters of the executives surveyed by PwC. Again, that was a big increase from last year.
PwC’s study reflects nearly 2,000 executives, split equally between managers with a specific technology role and those with other responsibilities.
What do digitally minded companies hope to accomplish?
The top priority is driving new top-line revenue within three years, according to the PwC study and a separate report out this week from McKinsey Institute. And both cite a lack of cohesive leadership as the biggest obstacle to achieve that goal. “At the business-unit level, the high performers are more than twice as likely to others to say they’ve dedicated their best people and resources to their companies’ digital initiatives,” McKinsey reports.
Speaking of digital transitions, the AARP thinks there should be more apps and technologies focused on people of a certain age. (After all, life starts at 50, right?) The advocacy group is teaming with JPMorgan Chase on a $40 million fund dedicated to innovation for “seniors.” Finally, watch Fortune Live at 3 pm Eastern for an interview with Dell’s Internet of things guru. Enjoy your weekend!
TRENDING
Job cuts for AMD and Sprint. The wireless carrier wants to reduce spending by up to $2.5 billion, according to a memo circulated by its new CFO. Sprint hasn't actually disclosed any layoffs, yet, but open positions won't be filled. The cuts at Advanced Micro Devices will affect about 500 employees, or approximately 5% of the workforce. (Wall Street Journal)
Data breach at credit reporting service Experian could touch 15 million. It will affect anyone who switched over to T-Mobile's network in the past two years. The purloined information was pretty personal, including driver's license numbers and passport details. (Fortune)
More legal woes for HP. The founder of Autonomy is fed up with "false and negligent statements" made by the company and its management since the buyout of his software company three years ago. He's seeking $150 million in damages through a suit filed in British court. HP characterized the response as "desperate and laughable." (Fortune)
Amazon bans competing video-streaming devices. If you want to buy a Google Chromecast or Apple TV in the e-commerce giant's electronics store, you are out of luck. (New York Times)
Here's how IBM wants to save Moore's Law. Carbon nanotube technology could allow far more transistors to be crammed onto a chip than is possible with conventional silicon. (Fortune)
THE DOWNLOAD
Here are the details behind Weave, Nest's answer to Apple's HomeKit
As competition in the smart home ecosystem heats up ahead of the holidays, Google’s Nest subsidiary is opening up a secure way for devices to communicate with any Nest product, creating a store to showcase all of the products that play nice with Nest devices and sharing more details about the number of developers who are involved with the Works With Nest program.
Each announcement is an important mark of a maturing platform. The store is also a response to the onslaught of devices that will work with Apple’s competing HomeKit home automation platform expected to hit the market in the coming few weeks.
BITS AND BYTES
HP reorganizes cloud team ahead of the Nov. 1 corporate split. (Re/code)
Software unicorn GitHub loves two-factor security authentication. It wants all developers to start using it. (Fortune)
Apple wants to build another spaceship-like office. This one could eventually house its electric car team. (Fortune)
Do we really need RFID chips in our driver's licenses? California is the latest state considering the addition, intended as a passport alternative. (Ars Technica)
Pure Storage goes public next week. The initial public offering scheduled for Wednesday could raise $450 million, considerably higher than the originally anticipated $300 million. (Re/code)
Florida changes mind, agrees Uber driver wasn't an employee, in case involving unemployment benefits. (Wired)
Skype now translates calls in real time. The first six languages supported are English, French, German, Italian, Madarin, and Spanish. (Verge)
Coming (soon?) to Google Glass: holograms. (TechCrunch)
MY FORTUNE BOOKMARKS
Google and Microsoft's patent peace: 3 unresolved questions by Jeff John Roberts
Why Zuora, champion of the subscription economy, is turning Japanese by Heather Clancy
Snapchat is adding more ways for advertisers to be in your silly selfies by Kia Kokalitcheva
ONE MORE THING
Locked out of your Corvette? GM is working on an Apple Watch app that will unlock its cars. (Journal)
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
HP Engage: Big data, big engagement. (Oct. 4 - 6; San Diego)
Gartner Symposium ITxpo: CIOs and senior IT executives. (Oct. 4 - 8; Orlando, Florida)
AWS re:Invent: The global Amazon Web services community. (Oct. 6 - 9; Las Vegas)
Relate by Zendesk: Improve your customer engagement. (Oct. 7 - 8; New York)
I Love APIs: Apigee's annual conference. (Oct. 12 - 14; San Jose, California)
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: World's largest gather of women technologists. (Oct. 14 - 16; Houston)
DevOps Enterprise Summit: Lean principles meet technology management. (Oct. 19 - 21; San Francisco)
Tableau Conference 2015: Tableau’s annual customer conference. (Oct 19 -23; Las Vegas)
Dell World: Global conference for customers and partners. (Oct. 20 - 22; Austin, Texas)
Virtuous Circle Conference: Internet policy in the round (Oct. 12-13, Menlo Park, California)
CX San Francisco: Forrester's forum for customer experience professionals. (Oct. 22 - 23)
Oracle OpenWorld: Customer and partner conference. (Oct. 25 - 29; San Francisco)
TBM Conference: Manage IT like a business. (Oct. 26 - 29; Chicago)
eBusiness Chicago: eBusiness and channel strategy. (Oct. 29 - 30)
QuickBooks Connect: SMBs, entrepreneurs, accountants and developers. (Nov. 2 - 4; San Jose, California)
CMO+CIO: Forrester's summit on strategy collaboration. (Nov. 2 - 4; Sarasota, Florida)
Oktane: Identity management trends. (Nov. 2 - 4; Las Vegas)
FutureStack: Define your future with New Relic. (Nov. 11 - 13; San Francisco)
Structure: Many choices, many clouds. (Nov. 18 - 19; San Francisco) Data Sheet subscribers get 25% off registration.
