Forrester Research will advise CIOs on new strategies for driving business innovation through IT, at its annual IT Forum EMEA in Lisbon next week.

Forrester vice president and research director Alex Cullen will present on the role of the 21st century CIO, examining the "fork in the road" facing IT leaders as the paradigms by which IT is managed fundamentally change.

"IT leaders will be forced to make the decision to [drive] business innovation and transformation or to go in the direction of taking good care of the day-to-day management of IT," said Forrester analyst Alex Peters. "They can't manage both at the same time, but it doesn't mean that if a person specialises in one they will be bound to do this for the rest of their career."

The conference will also examine how technology in organisations will increasingly be managed by business professionals, with CIOs and IT leaders moving into more of an advisory role. "This is not a positive or negative [trend] but a fact of life," said Peters. "Businesses should not step back but get more involved in this and the CIO and IT should enable them to take these decisions."

There will also be presentations featuring case studies to illustrate how a holistic, process-driven approach to technology can help support organisations' global ambitions, said Peters.