Businesses turn attentions away from IT cost saving

Survey says IT strategies now focus on growing business

Just 15 per cent of IT executives are establishing IT strategies based on cost savings, according to research published yesterday (Wednesday).

Thirty seven per cent view of respondents to Accenture's High Performance Infrastructure Survey now regard IT as an enabler of business growth rather than merely as a cost to the business and 35 per cent are aiming to improve their IT performance.

Some 38 per cent say their budgets are set to increase while 45 per cent say it will remain the same.

Stuart Okin, senior executive at Accenture and author of the report, says businesses' focus on cost savings over the last five years has shifted.

‘What we’ve seen since 2000 is a cost saving drive following huge infrastructure investment which has now changed to focus on how infrastructure can help revenue growth, beat competition and improve service levels,’ said Okin.

‘Businesses want to invest in IT to create a dynamic and flexible infrastructure,’ he said.

‘Once the investment has been done and I suspect we will go back into cost saving mode although I personally hope we don’t go back down that road,’ said Okin.

Phil Codling, principal analyst at Ovum believes we are witnessing the return of the growth agenda within the IT industry.

‘Businesses are using cost savings to invest in more exciting things which is good news for the industry,’ said Codling.

‘We’re seeing people returning to CRM projects, business intellingence projects, investment in IT designed to take market share and drive the business,’ said Codling.

‘The importance of cost savings haven’t gone away and the growth agenda is wrapped inside an overall cost savings agenda,’ said Codling.

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