IDC: Business picks up tech bill now instead of IT department

Analyst's study shows tech will continue to be paid for by business in coming years

IT projects are becoming so important to businesses that firms want to fund them from their own wider budget and not from that of the IT department, according to IDC.

IDC's The Implication of Shifting Technology Buying Centres on Your Business report – which surveyed 1,200 line-of-business executives – found that 61 per cent of enterprise IT projects are now funded by the business rather than the IT department.

It added that spending by the business will continue to outpace the level of spending just from the IT department in the future.

The analyst put the shift down to the increasingly important role IT plays within businesses.

"Technology has long been central to improving business processes, enabling greater speed, efficiency and reliability," said Meredith Whalen, IDC's senior vice president of US insights and markets.

"As businesses embrace the Third Platform – [technology] built on cloud services, big data analytics, mobile computing and social networking technologies – they are taking the critical first steps towards business process transformation and, in some cases, business model transformation.

"With such high stakes, the business is increasingly taking a front seat in technology initiatives."

The survey also found that 85 per cent of respondents said that compared to three years ago, IT is becoming more valuable to their respective functional areas of the business.

The analyst said the increasing role of tech in business means it is not surprising that spending is moving away from the IT department and is being determined at a higher level.

"As today's business executives are more tech savvy, have easier access to technology through the cloud, and are under pressure to implement new technology initiatives more quickly, it is not surprising that line-of-business executives are spearheading more IT projects," it said.

"In fact, today's line-of-business employees are looking more and more like an extension of the IT department as, on average, eight per cent are technical personnel."