IT spending as a percentage of revenue is up sharply to 6.08% over last year’s 5.04% and the ten-year average of 4.55%. Correspondingly, 74.0% of organizations report increases in their IT budgets compared to 71.0% last year. Most of this spending is on people: 49.1 % is spent on Employees, Contractors, and Consultants; 393 % on Hardware, Software, and Facilities; and 11.6 % on Cloud Computing and Other. Hiring is increasing, with 613% of organizations increasing their hiring this year and 70.0% predicting increased hiring in 2018. Also, 943 % of the organizations report granting IT salary raises this year. In the areas of overlapping budget categories, “Keeping the IT Lights On” is the largest, followed by Software Development & Maintenance, IT Capital Investment, Outsourcing, Cybersecurity, and Business Analytics. In terms of new IT capital investments, organizations are investing in Business Analytics, followed by Security, Cloud, Application Development, and ERPs. Despite the spending, however, it appears that more organizations could and should be doing more about cybersecurity.
Question for Discussion:
Based on the attached SIM IT Concerns Survey discuss the following:
Which of the top 10 concerns would you rate as the top 3 and why? What are the reasons for the new concerns added in the latest survey? Do you agree and why?
Which of the 10 Most Worrisome would you rate as top 3 and why?
Based on your reading of the findings of the SIM IT Trends Report and your own understanding of the field how would you as a CIO prepare for and respond to these issues and trends?
