2020 IT budget research report: Security, cloud services, and digitalization are top budget priorities

Companies increasingly respond to new business conditions with their technology spends, and nowhere is this more apparent than in their IT budgets.

Where exactly businesses plan to spend their tech dollars was the topic of a recent TechRepublic Premium survey.

The survey asked the following questions:

  • How much do you anticipate your organization’s fiscal or calendar year 2020 budget will be?
  • Who in your organization makes initial recommendations for items in the IT budget?
  • What percentage of the overall corporate budget is allocated to IT?
  • What percentage of corporate technology spending comes from outside the IT budget?
  • Which are the following top priorities in your organization’s budget for fiscal calendar year 2020?
  • How can IT vendors better assist you with your budgetary process?

While security (51%) and cloud services (45%) remain top IT budget priorities for 2020, internal hardware and software purchases, digitalization, employee training, and mobile tech and app development are gaining traction. The priorities for 2020 IT budgets represent a departure from 2019 survey results where 63% of respondents said security was the top concern, 48% said internal hardware purchases were the top priority, and 48% said cloud was the most important investment.

This year’s budget projections also show a slight increase in IT investment from 2019, where 55% of businesses reported annual IT budgets of $500,000 or less, and 8% reported having a budget from $20 million to $500 million. Of the current survey respondents, 51% reported having an annual IT budgets of $500,000 or less; while 26% percent have IT budgets that ranged from $20 million to $500 million.

Further, the majority of survey respondents (76%) reported that their IT budgets comprised 10% or less of their organizations’ total budgetary spending. A majority of survey respondents also stated that IT was the primary source of recommendations for what went into the IT budget.

Corporate IT decision makers, however, are struggling with vendor pricing models. Of respondents, 54% said that vendors would provide more value if licensing fees and pricing schedules vendors presented were more simplified, and consequently, more understandable. Vendors can also assist companies in demonstrating the business value of their products through more proofs of concept and trials. In support of this, 46% of survey respondents felt that their vendors weren’t doing enough in this area.

This report contains all the data, plus analysis, from the survey. For details on future TechRepublic Premium surveys, follow us on Facebook, Twitter,or LinkedIn.

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August 27, 2019
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