Most IT budgets going towards transformation

IT has come to be seen as the main driver for transforming organisations, with the majority of IT budgets being spent on transformation and innovation programs, according to Telsyte.

The Australian technology analyst company found that 32% of IT budgets are being spent on transformation, and a further 25% goes towards innovation. By comparison, only 43% is being spent on regular operations.

In addition, two-thirds (67%) of Australian IT departments are providing regular updates to their organisation’s board of directors, up 7% from 2014.

CIOs say developing new products and services is the number one business priority, and organisations are rapidly adopting emerging technologies to stay competitive in response to increase global competition.

As a result, more than 50% of organisations intend to increase spending on cloud infrastructure services, 70% have adopted platform as a service (PaaS) and most organisations are now mobile first.

Adoption of activity-based working has grown 14% over the past two years, with 42% now supporting the practice. Adoption of emerging technologies such as 3D printing (24%), robotics process automation (25% of large enterprises) and the IoT (22%) is also rapidly increasing.

The increasing importance of ICT to the competitiveness of the business has meanwhile sparked a rise in the use of shadow IT, with 8% of organisations believing that IT spending by non-IT departments already exceeds IT department budgets.

“‘Shadow IT’ is just a small part of a seismic shift in the role of IT in business. This change invites CIOs to play a leading role in determining how companies create new products and services, and in how they bring employees together to create value,” Telsyte Senior Analyst Steven Noble said.

“These shifts are a direct outcome of the changing priorities facing the IT leader, and elevating CIOs to the status of ‘manager of complexity’ and strategic advisor unlike ever before.”

Image courtesy of Washington State House Republicans under CC