It is projected that global IT spending will reach $3.7 trillion with Enterprise software and IT services as the main leader in the growth for 2018. This is the largest predicted amount since 2007. John-David Lovelock at Gartner stated in a late release, “spending on IT around the world is growing at expected levels and is in line with expected global economic growth.” To give you a better understanding of how organizations around the world are viewing their IT budgets, a recent survey was taken amongst technology professional organizations in an attempt to determine the funding and spending priorities of all departments within the organization. The following questions were asked:
- How much will your business spend on IT in the upcoming year?
- How does the upcoming year’s IT budget compare with last year’s?
- Compared to other business units, how much does your company’s leadership value the IT budget?
- What percentage of the overall budget is allocated for IT?
- What percentage of corporate technology spending comes from outside the IT budget? What are your top business technology spending priorities for the upcoming year?
- How can vendors better assist with the budgeting process?
- Who makes initial recommendations for items on the department budget?
Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars)
2017 Spending | 2017 Growth (%) | 2018 Spending | 2018 Growth (%) | |
Data Center Systems | 173 | 1.7 | 176 | 1.8 |
Enterprise Software | 354 | 8.5 | 387 | 9.4 |
Devices | 664 | 5.3 | 697 | 5.0 |
IT Services | 931 | 4.0 | 980 | 5.3 |
Communications Services | 1,387 | 0.9 | 1,417 | 2.2 |
Overall IT | 3,508 | 3.3 | 3,658 | 4.3 |
Source: Gartner (October 2017)
Those who responded to the survey voiced that their highest priority purchases consisted of hardware and software purchases as well as cloud services. Nearly half of the respondents felt that their executive teams valued IT funding just as much as any other funding budget. While 36 percent of respondents felt that the IT budget of their organization was valued below all other budget funding. Overall, 53 percent of respondents voiced that they will seek stronger security measures. Unsurprisingly so, as security should be the top and main priority of any organization with all the risks in the IT arena today. If you have questions on IT budgeting, or you would like to make sure your company’s IT budget is being spent in a productive way, please contact us today!
