Dell Study Finds Business, IT Leaders More in Step on Tech Spending

A new Dell study finds that business and IT decision-makers are more in agreement than in the past. Here are some areas where the relationship between business and IT has changed for the better.

Both business decision-makers and IT decision-makers agree that employee productivity is most important to their operations. In fact, 81 percent of IT decision-makers say they consider productivity their top priority, and 77 percent of business decision-makers argue the same.

According to Dell’s study, 62 percent of IT decision-makers and 51 percent of business decision-makers say that cloud computing is the most important technology trend right now. They also indicated the cloud will be their first IT implementation priority in the months and years ahead.

Surprisingly, big data was the second most important IT trend among both business and IT decision-makers. According to Dell, 55 percent on the IT side and 43 percent on the business side say that big data will affect their operations in “very important” ways in the coming years.

With the cloud and big data becoming more important, servers are losing some of their luster. In fact, just 39 percent of business decision-makers think updating server inventories is a “major priority.” However, those on the IT side still see a bit more value, with 47 percent saying refreshing server installations is a “major priority.”

Making the company more mobile is another top concern for decision-makers. The Dell study found that 47 percent of IT decision-makers view improving the company’s mobile capabilities as “very important,” compared with 43 percent of business decision-makers.

More than half of all IT decision-makers say they want to react more quickly than their competitors to the changing IT marketplace. In fact, they noted reaction time is one of their chief concerns before making any IT decisions.

Software-defined data centers (SDDCs) are becoming increasingly attractive to companies, Dell’s data shows. The company’s findings reveal that 88 percent of IT decision-makers are at least considering an SDDC, and 80 percent of business decision-makers say they’re looking at it.

The most likely reason for a company to move to an SDDC is to gain more “agility and flexibility,” both IT and business decision-makers agree. They also argue that SDDCs could deliver to them simpler management and lower costs while increasing scalability.

Interestingly, the business and IT sides can’t quite agree when it comes to reducing costs. The Dell study found that 61 percent of IT decision-makers are focused on lowering their IT costs when they make a technology decision. However, just half of those on the business side say they’re worried about cost savings when implementing new IT solutions. In other words, it seems the IT side is more concerned about budget than the business side.

When asked individually how far into the future their strategic IT plans go, nearly 80 percent of business decision-makers say they look ahead two to three years. Just 14 percent have a four-year strategic IT plan. On the IT side, more than 70 percent say their strategic IT plans run two to three years. Surprisingly, 13 percent of IT decision-makers have only a one-year strategic IT plan.