Dive Brief:
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Close to 90% of companies expect IT budgets to stay the same or increase in the next year, according to a Spiceworks survey of more than 1,000 IT buyers. In the event of overall budget gains, companies expect a 19% IT budget increase as tech dependence in the workplace grows.
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Average budgets break down to 31% of spending going to hardware, 26% to software, 21% to hosted and cloud-based services and 15% to managed services. Spending on hardware, software and services is driven most by end-of-life tech needs (54%) and growth (53%).
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Across business sizes, more than half of companies expect to see growth in hardware, software and hosted/cloud services, and 42% expect to see growth in managed services. Access to data anywhere, disaster recovery improvements, more flexibility and lessening the IT staff support burden are the biggest drivers to the cloud. Communication and collaboration, backup/disaster recovery and productivity applications are the most common cloud workloads.
Dive Insight:
As companies expand IT budgets, projects and staff, clear communication and understanding at the executive level is critical. Close to 90% of senior executives said barriers exist between the CIO and CFO of their company, according to a Dell EMC and Forbes survey. This disconnect can prove costly to long-term improvements and technology investment. CIOs need to have a seat at the budget table.
But as IT staffs increase, CIOs will have to compete for talented hires in a market with too many positions and not enough candidates. Talent is critical for successful implementation of advanced tech, especially the cloud, artificial intelligence and Big Data, but executives may have to start dedicating more of their budget to meet salary demands.
Many companies outside the tech sector are beginning to show off their own advanced tech solutions, as demonstrated in the cosmetics, sports and food industries. As more companies become dependent on technology in operations and pipelines, product and service providers can capitalize on an expanding customer base.
