Have we changed IT spending priorities?

March 4, 2009 by: Peter B. Giblett

budget-squeeze In the current climate corporations are nervous about spending any money. Keeping the status quo is very high on the agenda. However there are always changes that need to be made.

Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) should definitely be high on the priority list. It is not about crystal ball gazing, but the ability to provide the board with the key metrics that can be used for informed decision making.

Many of the IT leaders that I have been talking to recently all indicate that this may be the time for OpenSource to make inroads into corporate IT. Cash strapped corporations are suddenly finding these solutions viable, turning over years of doubt.

Data integration remains an important part of the IT infrastructure. To some extent integration is a key differentiator for any corporation. It brings together the various islands of data. The Data Warehouse, the foundation for BI and data mastering all require integration provide their benefits.

After last year’s financial meltdown compliance will also rank high on the agenda, even if procedures were fully compliant the auditors will be carrying around their magnifying glass for the the immediate future. It will also be important to maintain security standards.

The other security concern relates to the broadening of virtualized environments. Virtualization promises cost efficiencies in the server environment, this is subject of another article published recently (click here).

I would expect a tightening of the statutory compliance requirements within all industries in the current period. This is primarily a business based challenge, but it is expected to have an associated demand for IT resources.

Service and delivery standards should not be allowed to decline, particularly where it impacts the customer experience.

Essentially we are all living in a world where nothing get spent that does not either increase revenue or bring about savings to the corporation, ultimately this drives IT priorities. I would say that we have changed our priorities.