Unlike their global counterparts whose role is often confined to merely determining what technology to implement, CIOs (chief information officers) in Southeast Asia are more involved in the management of their business organizations.

A recent study conducted by tech goliath IBM bore this out as it found that Asean CIOs are often included, and are better accepted, as members of the senior management teams as compared to others CIOs in other parts of the globe.

“As a result, (Asean CIOs) are more actively involved in all aspects of setting the business strategy, especially with their fellow leaders, including presenting on or deciding upon the business strategy,” said an IBM statement, citing the report.

In a recent visit to the country to discuss the result of the survey, Fiona Capstick, geographic integration executive at the office of the IBM CIO, said the role of CIOs is changing dramatically with Asean tech execs leading the charge.

“Asean IT managers are really more into business… they are standardizing their routine business processes and simplifying their existing IT infrastructure to reduce cost,” said Capstick.

Sandy Vann, country leader for IBM global business services (GBS) at IBM Philippines, said the role that CIOs perform today are much wider so it’s not surprising to see them spending on new areas of growth.

“They are, in fact, using technology to create growth opportunities for their companies,” Vann said.

In the report, Asean CIOs closely mirrored their global counterparts in terms of specific characteristics. They shared the same focus areas when planning their future strategic visions, with both picking BI (business intelligence) and analytics as top tools for growth.

The global study collated responses from more than 2,500 CIOs, who were interviewed face-to-face by IBM. The CIOs came from 78 countries, 19 industries, and organizations of every size.

The survey also revealed that data reliability and security have emerged as increasingly urgent concerns, with 71 percent of CIOs planning to make additional investments in risk management and compliance.