CIOs are seeing technology as less of an avenue to organisation and more of an enabler of innovation, according to a survey of 2300 technology bosses published today by Gartner.

Mark McDonald, Gartner Fellow and group vice president for Gartner’s Executive Programs CIO group, says in a release that while tough economic conditions have continued to keep IT budgets down, technology’s role in the enterprise is still increasing.

"Effective leaders use technology, which includes IT, to strengthen the customer experience and eliminate costly internal distortions,” McDonald says.

"They are using technology to ‘amplify’ the enterprise.”

The survey questioned 2335 CIOs across 37 industries and 45 countries. On average, respondents around the world expected budget increases of just 0.5%, although in Asia Pacific the mood was more optimistic, with a 3.4% increase predicted.

The top technology priority was analytics and business intelligence, which Gartner says CIOs are increasingly applying in conjunction with other technologies.

Following BI were mobile technologies and cloud computing. Surprisingly, CIOs don’t seem that worried about security, which ranked 10th.

Go here to read the full release from Gartner.