More data to support my side of the debate about the relevance of CIOs (Optimize's own research and my conversations with CIOs themselves indicates CIOs are gaining in influence and relevance, not risking losing it). This comes from a recently release study from KPMG and Harvey Nash, as quoted at PhysOrg.com..."Eighty-five percent of CIOs said they found their jobs fulfilling, with 25 percent saying that they were 'very' fulfilled and 63 percent saying that they were 'quite' fulfilled. More than two-thirds said they were neither interested in nor applying for outside career opportunities. Just 17 percent reported that they were actively looking for new jobs.

The survey argued that one of the reasons that CIOs are generally content in their jobs is that, while 20 percent report having their budgets decreased, the vast majority - 79 percent - report budget increases.

Business and IT integration was a dominant theme of the survey, and an area where progress has been made over the last year. While in the previous year's survey, only 37 percent of respondents felt that their IT was well integrated with business, now 57 percent say the same.

Despite this 20 percent improvement, however, CIOs still feel they have a way to go before IT and business are fully integrated. Fifty-three percent ranked "alignment with business" as their top priority, compared to only 38 percent last year."

Two key points from this summary of the report (besides the further proof that CIOs aren't losing influence): Increased IT budgets (in aggregate, CIOs tell me that budgets are still flat year-over-year, so this KPMG data is encouraging news), and the satisfaction among CIOs that business and IT are becoming more integrated. That's one of the key arguments among folks who claim CIOs are losing relevance -- apparently (at least according to the aforementioned Forrester report from my previous blog posting) CEOs are dissatisfied with CIOs in part because of a lack of business and IT integration. It's my firm belief that most businesses have already aligned business and IT (although there are pockets of stragglers; my colleague Stephanie Stahl told me yesterday that at an event she moderated last week, fewer than half of the 30 or so attendees raised their hands when she asked if they felt their organizations were already aligned).