A survey of CIOs that spans sevens countries and 28 difference vertical sectors has revealed IT chiefs find it difficult to devote more time and resources to external customer-facing projects because an excessive portion of their IT budget is swallowed up by internal IT operations, and maintenance and support expenses.

The poll which drew responses from 861 CIOs across the globe was run to assess how IT executives were contending with the downturn.

One conclusion of the InformationWeek Analytics Global CIO Report was that, “A clear give-and-take battle is underway at many global enterprises between implementing strategic development plans versus tactical cost cutting and retrenchment initiatives.”

Across industries and across the globe, CIOs are working desperately to find ways to lower the cost of infrastructure, the report suggests.

The survey found that more than a half (57%) of respondents considered consolidating global data centres to be a very important goal, while almost a third (28%) are driving global technology and process standards suggesting a focus on ITIL, ISO, CMM and the like.

InformationWeek’s assessment showed CIOs are working to spend less money on internal IT issues and refining new ways to capture and communicate the business value of IT efforts and expenses on global projects.

One line is that there is a need among CIOs and their teams to formalise an expense optimisation programme that involves and engages business executives in discussions about IT cost, but also about IT value.

Tellingly, 37% of European firms in this latest study reported that the CIO is consulted only after most big business decisions are made, possibly a consequence of a relatively more stratified management decision process in place in the region.

Last month the influential cost consulting group of Hackett said that CIOs were generally not doing enough to close the gap between flat budgets and rising demand. 

It urged better use of IT demand management, which it rated as an underutilised technique, and the use of charge backs, service catalogues or IT portfolio management as a means shaping demand