8 Steps for CIOs to Improve Technology ROI

Align investments with business goals, simplify the IT estate, and unlock measurable value from AI and cloud.

Maximizing Tech ROI: A Strategic Roadmap for CIOs

Is your IT strategy keeping pace with the rapid advancement of AI? Discover how CIOs are redefining tech ROI with intelligent cloud solutions that align seamlessly with business objectives. Learn the strategic steps to streamline operations, enhance security, and drive innovation for sustainable growth. Uncover how modern approaches are transforming CIOs into key strategic partners in the digital age.

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The role of the CIO has never carried more strategic weight—or more scrutiny. Boards expect measurable return on every tech dollar spent, not just operational uptime. Yet most enterprises are grappling with sprawling SaaS portfolios, fragmented data, multi-cloud complexity, and the urgent need to integrate AI into operations.

This isn’t just about keeping systems running—it’s about building a modern IT foundation that enables AI to deliver business value. That requires a roadmap that connects technology to enterprise goals, simplifies the tech stack, and measures success in business terms.

SaaS sprawl, multi-cloud, and years of decentralized buying created thousands of apps, dozens of data silos, and fragile integrations. AI exposes every crack because AI is only as good as the data and connectivity beneath it. This paper details a pragmatic fix: align to business outcomes, simplify the stack, secure the “crown jewels,” and phase deliver to show value fast.

The 8-Step CIO Roadmap to Improve Technology ROI

This guide distills years of enterprise transformation work into a clear, staged approach you can apply immediately—whether you’re just beginning to consolidate your estate or already piloting AI-powered solutions.

1 | Align IT Investments with Business Objectives
Tie every project to a business outcome. Use AI-powered assessment to uncover inefficiencies, engage business leadership early, and measure with ROO alongside ROI.

2 | Simplify and Consolidate Your IT Infrastructure
Identify redundant systems, prioritize integration where it drives ROO, and tame the complexity that kills AI’s effectiveness.

3 | Plan Holistically, Implement with Agility
Build adaptable roadmaps with feedback loops to prevent drift and keep spend linked to enterprise priorities.

4 | Invest Incrementally
Address foundational needs first, then sequence high-ROI initiatives to show early wins and build momentum

5 | Protect the Crown Jewels
Move to zero-trust, strengthen governance, and calculate security’s ROI as the driver of resilience and trust.

6 | Use AI to Modernize IT Itself
Apply GenAI to speed assessments, code development, requirements gathering, and training—freeing skilled staff for high-value work.

7 | Pilot, Measure, and Iterate
Run targeted pilots, measure against business outcomes, scale successes, and adapt underperforming initiatives.

8 | Design for Scale and Fit
Build cloud and AI solutions that adapt to business change without requiring disruptive rebuilds.

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CIOs face unprecedented pressure to ensure their business objectives are driving the right tech strategy. To make that happen, many are consolidating their fragmented solutions and ensuring they’re getting the greatest ROI from their tech investments so they can realize exponential business outcomes.

Let's start a conversation about maximizing your tech ROI Improve Your Technology Strategy with KPMG

Two decades ago, CIOs were focused on integrating system-to-system workflows. Today, the landscape is far more advanced—and complex. With the rise of agent-to-agent (A2A) protocols like Open AI’s MCP, autonomous software agents can now exchange data, trigger actions, and coordinate workflows without human intervention.

This shift has profound ROI implications. To harness it, CIOs must:

Ensure data pipelines, APIs, and integration frameworks are secure, scalable, and discoverable by AI agents.
Govern agent interactions with clear rules, audit trails, and business alignment, preventing “black box” automation.
Prepare infrastructure for low-latency, high-volume event handling, ensuring agents can respond in real time without degrading system performance.

Agent-to-agent operations won’t just improve efficiency—they’ll redefine service delivery models, shorten innovation cycles, and create new monetization opportunities for IT capabilities. This paper details how to prepare your environment so agent coordination translates into measurable business goals.

Security is too often viewed as a compliance requirement—a necessary cost to avoid fines and breaches. In reality, modern security architecture can directly improve ROI by enabling faster change, higher system availability, and greater customer trust.

Zero-trust security by design

Adopt zero-trust security by design, authenticating every request, whether inside or outside the network perimeter.

Data governance frameworks

Implement data governance frameworks that improve trust in enterprise data—essential for AI accuracy and adoption.

Risk-adjusted ROI

Quantify risk-adjusted ROI by modeling the avoided cost of breaches, outages, and compliance violations.

Design constraint in transformation projects

Embed security as a design constraint in transformation projects, reducing costly rework and delays.

Traditional ROI reporting often fails to capture the long-term, strategic value of technology investments—especially those aimed at enabling AI and transformation. ROO complements ROI by linking spend directly to agreed upon business outcomes, such as market share growth, churn reduction, or innovation velocity.

This paper shows how to:

Define enterprise-level objectives technology must support.
Develop shared dashboards that put business and IT performance metrics side-by-side
Track progress in real time to maintain alignment and funding confidence.
Use outcome data to make informed decisions on scaling, pivoting, or retiring initiatives.

With ROO + ROI in place, CIOs can shift the conversation from “what did it cost?” to “what did it deliver?” – making it far easier to defend and expand strategic investments.

The KPMG Intelligent Transformation framework aligns IT portfolios with business priorities, consolidates fragmented systems, embeds security from day one, and applies AI to accelerate delivery. The result: a modern, scalable environment ready for deep AI adoption and sustained business growth.

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Let's start a conversation about maximizing your tech ROI Improve Your Technology Strategy with KPMG

Insights to help you elevate your tech strategy

What sets apart good from great tech leaders? It's their ability to consolidate and connect fragmented solutions, effectively manage business demands from different business functions in a holistic way, and ensure they’re getting the greatest ROI from their tech investment.

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