Resurgent IT department

18th December 2018 |   Journal Of Sales Transformation

Decision-makers now tend to view the IT department as a supportive enabler of technology purchases, rather than the “roadblock” it was seen as previously – that’s according to a survey of how technology attitudes are changing in large organisations in the US and UK.

Vanson Bourne, a UK-based market research organisation specialising in enterprise technology trends, unveiled its third annual State of Enterprise IT insight programme on 19 November 2018. Its most recent research finds that strategic power is swinging back to the IT department: in the 2017 research, 28% said the department was not involved in strategic decisions at all, but this had dropped nine percentage points to 19% in 2018. Six in ten respondents said that the IT department is now driving innovation and new technology adoption, up from four in ten last year.

Additionally, the trend for IT spend widening across the organisation continues, as only 34% of respondents said that the IT department is solely responsible for IT spend, down from 40% the previous year. Departments such as marketing, finance, and compliance continue to buy IT products and services, most likely department-specific cloud-based software (44%) and other cloud services (40%).

Vanson Bourne surveyed 200 IT decision-makers in the US and 100 in the UK. Additionally, ten in-depth discussions were performed with business decision makers in UK organisations.

The research also found that less senior members of staff are increasingly likely to be spending IT budget, suggesting that technology vendors and marketers should carefully consider how to adapt their messaging and media activities.

For more information, visit: https://www.stateofenterpriseit.com.