CIO Benchmark 2026: ADIRA paints a portrait of IT departments in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

L'ADIRA publishes his CIO Benchmark 2026A study conducted across 84 organizations, representing a combined IT budget of €1.56 billion and serving over 341,000 employees, provides a comprehensive overview of IT departments in the region, highlighting their growing strategic importance and operational challenges.

A confirmed strategic weight

First lesson: the CIO function occupies a central place in the governance of organizations. 69% of CIOs report directly to the CEO., a figure which confirms the strategic anchoring of digital technology in the responding companies, mostly from industry (31%), personal services (14%) and health (13%).

On the security side, 78% of organizations have a CISO function, whether attached to the IT department or outsourced — although 22% do not yet have one.

Large teams, but under pressure

On average, IT departments have 20 internal staff for every 8 external full-time equivalents, with a median ratio of one IT manager for every 49 employees served. The average turnover rate within IT staff is 7.9%.

Cybersecurity and AI are top priorities

On the IT department's priority scale, the cybersecurity comes out on top (3.5/4), closely followed by the data (3,4) and theAI (3.3). Conversely, responsible digital practices remain the lowest-rated priority (1.9/4), indicating that this is a project that still needs to be consolidated.

The study also highlights an underlying tension: IT decision-makers must deal with sometimes contradictory demands — to accelerate while securing, to innovate while controlling environmental impact, to transform while guaranteeing continuity of service.

An IT department increasingly focused on creating services

Nearly half of the CIOs surveyed (48%) already offer a formalized service catalog, and one in two has committed to a support SLA. On the budget side, the trend remains upward, with an average increase of 5.26%, of which 8% is specifically dedicated to cybersecurity.

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ADIRA invites organizations in the region to join its network: membership, subscribed to by the organization, benefits all of its IT, digital and business employees (managers, HR, lawyers, buyers, business engineers, project managers...).

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