Chief Information Officers (CIOs) believe business intelligence and analytics will help their organizations become more competitive, according to a study that IBM plans to release on Thursday.

A total of 83% of the CIOs participating in the survey indicated that business intelligence and analytics represent a path toward more effective competition.

Business intelligence and analytics software provides a way for organizations to find patterns in data and to identify ways to optimize business processes and practices.

IBM's findings about the appreciation of business intelligence and analytics among CIOs concur with the findings in the InformationWeek 500 survey, scheduled for release next week at the InformationWeek 500 Conference.

IBM's study, "The New Voice of the CIO," involved 2,500 CIOs from 78 countries and 19 industries. IBM claims the study underscores the "the increasingly strategic role that CIOs are playing as visionary leaders and as drivers of innovation and financial growth."

"Clearly the role of the CIO is changing dramatically," said IBM CIO Pat Toole in a statement. "On the one hand they are trying to standardize routine processes and simplify their existing IT infrastructure to reduce costs, hence their growing interest in technologies such as cloud computing. On the other hand, given the central role that today's CIO is playing in driving new business models, whether it's a Smart Grid system, an Intelligent Transport system, or a transparent food supply chain, it's not surprising that the amount of time they are now spending on driving new kinds of growth for their companies is growing considerably."

The study also found that 71% of CIOs plan to invest more in risk management and compliance, owing to the data reliability and security issues that accompany commitments to business intelligence and analytics.

In addition, CIOs see value in lowering their energy costs, 76% through virtualization projects. A similar percentage of CIOs expect to build a strongly centralized infrastructure over the next five years, while more than half anticipate moving to low-cost, standardized business processes.

InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on server virtualization. Download the report here (registration required).