Only 1% of Business CIOs are Actually Using ”Blockchain” Technology
United Kingdom corporate research firm Gartner conducted a survey of nearly 300 Chief Information Officers (CIOs), in an attempt to separate hype from reality. The results are revealing, with a dismal 1% reporting “any kind of blockchain adoption within their organizations.”
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Survey of CIOs Reveals More Blockchain Hype Than Adoption
A rather revealing survey of 293 CIOs conducted by English research outfit Gartner is attempting to suss out marketing campaigns from actual fact on the subject of blockchain usage among businesses.
Gartner Vice President David Furlonger explained, “This year’s Gartner CIO Survey provides factual evidence about the massively hyped state of blockchain adoption and deployment. It is critical to understand what [it] is and what it is capable of today, compared to how it will transform companies, industries and society tomorrow.”
Among some of the standout numbers: a whopping 77% of CIOs admitted their companies exhibited exactly no interest in the tech, nor have they plans to in the future; 8 percent claimed to be looking at interim planning or experimentation with it; and only “1 percent of CIOs indicated any kind of […] adoption within their organizations,” the survey detailed.
Mr. Furlonger continued, “The challenge for CIOs is not just finding and retaining qualified engineers, but finding enough to accommodate growth in resources as blockchain developments grow. Qualified engineers may be cautious due to the historically libertarian and maverick nature of the [tech’s] developer community.”
Numbers Point to Slow Going for Blockchain Adoption
Cheekily, Mr. Furlonger waxed how “Blockchain continues its journey on the Gartner Hype Cycle at the Peak of Inflated Expectations. How quickly different industry players navigate the Trough of Disillusionment will be as much about the psychological acceptance of the innovations that [it] brings as the technology itself.”
Furthermore, of those companies dabbling in the tech, 13 percent believed a complete restructuring of an information technology department would be the only way to bring along blockchain; 14 percent worried it would mean a large change of company culture; 23 percent indicated a host of new skills are required to meaningfully use it; and 18 percent noted knowledge of the tech is nearly impossible to find among potential employees.
“Blockchain technology requires understanding of, at a fundamental level, aspects of security, law, value exchange, decentralized governance, process and commercial architectures,” Mr. Furlonger insisted. “It therefore implies that traditional lines of business and organization silos can no longer operate under their historical structures.”
Industries inclined toward blockchain include financial services, of course, insurance, and telecommunications. The survey notes even public utilities, government agencies, and transportation sectors are exploring it for logistics and efficiency. “While many industries indicate an initial interest in [such] initiatives, it remains to be seen whether they will accept decentralized, distributed, tokenized networks, or stall as they try to introduce blockchain into legacy value streams and systems,” Mr. Furlonger stressed.
Do you think blockchain is the inevitable future so many business leaders claim? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Pixabay, Gartner.
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