How the recession has changed IT buying behaviour
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The economic downturn put the breaks on decision making, said Stephen Martin of Dynamic Markets
Speaking at Information Age's Managing IT Cost Effectively seminar, Stephen Martin, of market research company Dynamic Markets, shared with delegates the findings of a survey of 100 senior IT professionals, providing a detailed analysis of how the recession had impacted IT spending.
Overall, 53% of respondents to the survey – which had been commissioned by event sponsor Numara – noted a reduction in their IT budget during the past year, while 38% lamented a slowdown in decision-making processes, making it difficult to implement new strategies.
“The general belief is that while [new projects] may open up new horizons and change the way things are going, they will inevitably overrun and fail to deliver their objectives,” Martin explained.
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Interestingly, the study revealed disparity in the buying attitudes of CIOs from those of the the rest of the sample, which comprised IT managers of varying seniority. More than half of the surveyed CIOs claimed that the most important considerations when deploying IT solutions were ‘speed of implementation’ and ‘quality of vendor support’, while IT managers placed most emphasis on ‘product features’ and ‘low purchase/ticket price’.
Martin found that, on average, the true total cost of ownership of an IT project is a third higher than expected, usually as a result of integration costs and subsequent modifications. He also revealed that it is not the extra expenditure that frustrates buying organisations so much as its unexpected nature.
“If the salesman doesn’t explain what the likely costs will be, then there’s a much higher chance that the customer is going to be unhappy,” he commented.
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