SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 14 (SeeNews) – Line-of-business executives (LOB) are increasingly becoming key influencers – and often decision makers – in IT purchases and strategy, Neli Vacheva, country manager at market intelligence company IDC, said on Wednesday.

According to an IDC survey of LOB managers in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in 2016, around 35% reach out to IT solutions providers as a first step in learning about IT, and another 28% reach out at the start of the buying process, Vacheva told SeeNews ahead of the IDC Digital Leadership forum due to take place on June 16 in Sofia. The forum will discuss where should the organisations prioritize investments to accelerate innovation, who should be involved and how to make digital transformation customer-centric, among other issues.

“While in Bulgaria, CIOs remain the key decision makers around ICT, this is changing, particularly given the impact of technologies like Big Data, Cloud and Social,”

Vacheva went on to say.

In her view, given the accelerating pace of technological development, IT departments will need to increasingly focus on business enablement rather than on specific business solutions.

“New skills and roles are evolving to manage the complexity of the IT and the business part,”

she added.