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Only one per cent of CIOs indicated any kind of blockchain adoption within their organisations, and only eight per cent of CIOs were in short-term planning or active experimentation with blockchain, according to Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey. Furthermore, 77 per cent of CIOs surveyed said their organization has no interest in the technology and/or no action planned to investigate or develop it.
“This year’s Gartner CIO Survey provides factual evidence about the massively hyped state of blockchain adoption and deployment,” said David Furlonger, vice president and Gartner Fellow. “It is critical to understand what blockchain is and what it is capable of today, compared to how it will transform companies, industries and society tomorrow.”
Furlonger added that rushing into blockchain deployments could lead organisations to significant problems of failed innovation, wasted investment, rash decisions and even rejection of a game-changing technology.
The rocky road to blockchain
Among 293 CIOs of organisations that are in short-term planning or have already invested in blockchain initiatives, 23 per cent of CIOs said that blockchain requires the most new skills to implement of any technology area, while 18 per cent said that blockchain skills are the most difficult to find. A further 14 per cent indicated that blockchain requires the greatest change in the culture of the IT department, and 13 per cent believed that the structure of the IT department had to change in order to implement blockchain.
“The challenge for CIOs is not just finding and retaining qualified engineers, but finding enough to accommodate growth in resources as blockchain developments grow,” said Furlonger. “Qualified engineers may be cautious due to the historically libertarian and maverick nature of the blockchain developer community.”
CIOs also recognised that blockchain implementation will change the operating and business model of the organisations, and they indicated a challenge in being ready and able to accommodate this requirement. “Blockchain technology requires understanding of, at a fundamental level, aspects of security, law, value exchange, decentralised governance, process and commercial architectures,” said Furlonger. “It therefore implies that traditional lines of business and organisation silos can no longer operate under their historical structures.”
Financial services and insurance companies lead the way
From an industry perspective, CIOs from telecom, insurance and financial services indicated being more actively involved in blockchain planning and experimentation than CIOs from other industries.
While financial services and insurance companies are at the forefront of this activity, the transportation, government and utilities sectors are now becoming more engaged due to the heavy focus on process efficiency, supply chain and logistics opportunities. For telecom companies, interest lies in a desire to “own the infrastructure wires” and grasp the consumer payment opportunity.
“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 blockchain brings as the technology itself,” said Furlonger.
Business, governance and operating models, and designed and implemented predigital business will take time to re-engineer. This is because of the ramifications blockchain has concerning control and economics. “While many industries indicate an initial interest in blockchain initiatives, it remains to be seen whether they will accept decentralised, distributed, tokenised networks, or stall as they try to introduce blockchain into legacy value streams and systems,” Furlonger concluded.
