It is the age of the customer. And like all ages, a shift of power and influence has taken place. Business and governments are now fiercely competing to win, serve and retain customers. Forrester applies this shift to “business technology” spending: tech purchases designed to influence the customer experience. It is crucial, therefore, that business and governments trigger a fast response to customer demands and requirements and to fund and launch new tech projects to meet customers’ rapidly changing demands.

Today, customers rule. And the unreasonable, and sometimes unrealistic, demands placed on CIOs result from this business trend. Two positions supposedly exist: first, the role of the CIO has been marginalized as business and marketing will control probably more than half of tech spending; second, the tech budgets will need to be rebalanced so that 50 percent is spent on new projects—those that will help to win, serve and retain customers. It is the proverbial rock and a hard place for CIOs: by keeping up with rapidly changing customer demands, the budget for ongoing operations and maintenance is reduced by 50 percent. It is hardly a win/win situation