Hardware purchases to bounce back as ANZ tech budgets increase
Technology budgets in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) are on the rise again, according to Forrester.
In its Benchmarking Australia and New Zealand Technology Budgets in 2015 report, Forrester revealed that 43 percent of its respondents in ANZ businesses expect their tech budgets to increase this year, against 26 percent that expect them to decrease.
Forrester analyst Tim Sheedy said the confidence of CEOs and CFOs has been boosted due to the results they have seen from previous technology investments.
"Cloud spending was on the rise in 2014, and CIOs have been improving processes and systems to help their department move at the speed of the customer," he said in the report.
"While there is still work to be done, CEOs and CFOs are confident enough to increase technology budgets with the knowledge that the work being done by the tech management team is making an impact on customers and on the business."
According to the report, salaried staff and contractors will continue to dominate and make up 37 percent of the tech budget -- 26 percent to salaried staff and 11 percent to contractors.
Businesses will also continue to spend on hardware infrastructure, which will make up 16 percent of the average IT budget, followed by software, at 14 percent.
This is the first increase in hardware budgets in a number of years, Sheedy noted, pinning the bounce back on businesses increasing their purchases of tablets, smartphones, and PCs.
"In 2015, many ANZ businesses will refresh their end user computing environments as they take a more modern approach to their employees' mobility requirements," he said.
The report also said that nearly half of the tech spending in ANZ now occurs outside of the CIO's department, and this is expected to continue increasing in 2015. Forrester said that in 2014, 37 percent of technology spending was by other business units without IT involvement. Meanwhile, it is expected that in 2015, 46 percent of business decision makers will increase this spending by 5 percent or more, and a further 19 percent will increase by more than 10 percent.
"Technology will define the products and services of digital businesses; expect this spending to continue to rise over the next five years as companies in ANZ look to complete transition to digital business," Sheedy said.