For most IT chiefs today, managing IT is like walking a tightrope.

CIOs and IT directors have to strike a balance between providing technology vision and leadership, and managing IT as a viable business or service. And as businesses increasingly rely on technology to run smoothly, issues like compliance, information security and disaster recovery end up on the IT priority list, alongside bread-and-butter issues like cost and resources.

Therefore, it is not surprising that IT management tops ZDNet Asia's annual regional survey on IT priorities, which was conducted in August 2007 across 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We received 2,369 completed responses, largely from Singapore (30 percent), India (25.8 percent), Malaysia (12.6 percent), Philippines (10.8 percent), Indonesia (5.9 percent), Thailand (3.4 percent), Australia/New Zealand (3.1 percent) and Hong Kong (2.5 percent).

About 14 percent of respondents highlighted wide-ranging areas of importance, including IT governance, project management, asset management and shared services. Business management and workplace issues also rank among the top five IT priorities, throwing the spotlight yet again on soft issues instead of technology. Indeed, recruitment and employee retention are ongoing challenges faced by all industries, from financial services to maritime.

We couldn't resist throwing in a question on green issues, given the media attention. The response? Well, the good news is, environmental issues are getting some notice. At least one-third of the respondents indicated they are doing something to save the environment, such as implementing power-saving policies and recycling. However, in the unprompted questions about IT priorities, few had a specific green agenda. And, according to Philip Carter, IDC Asia-Pacific's green IT lead, most IT managers today are not making eco-friendliness a technology buying criterion.

I've put together a list of tips to help CIOs who are thinking of adopting eco-friendly best practices and technologies but are not sure where to begin. Several industry vendors and analysts say businesses will make a move only if there's a financial incentive or an industry regulation. Well, technology vendors may want to consider offering rebate programs to nudge customers to embrace more eco-friendly technology.

We also wanted to find out what Asia's IT decision makers think of blogs and wikis, and if they have adopted--or plan to adopt--these Web 2.0 tools. Blogs, compared to virtual worlds, are most popular among the survey respondents. However, despite some interest, most businesses are in no rush to implement them.

Five IT heads kindly agreed to share their IT concerns and to give us a sneak peek at the IT projects that will be keeping their teams busy over the next 12 months. Read what these executives from Great Eastern Life Assurance, Citibank, BASF, Wallem Group and FedEx have to say, and if you, too, would like to share your IT priorities or views, drop me an e-mail.