IT budget research 2018: Funding and spending priorities

As the new calendar and fiscal year approaches, businesses begin preparing their annual budgets. With more companies implementing a digital transformation strategy, technology spending and the IT budget are an increasingly important component of the budget planning process.

In July and August 2017, TechRepublic Premium surveyed technology professionals about their company budgets for calendar and fiscal year 2018. We wanted to know how the 2018 budgets differ from the previous year, what that money will be spent on, and how much tech professionals feel the IT budget is valued by executive leadership.

Respondents to this year’s survey answered the following questions:

  • How much will your business spend on IT in the upcoming year?
  • How does the upcoming year’s IT budget compare with last year’s?
  • Compared to other business units, how much does your company’s leadership value the IT budget?
  • What percentage of the overall budget is allocated for IT?
  • What percentage of corporate technology spending comes from outside the IT budget?What are your top business technology spending priorities for the upcoming year?
  • How can vendors better assist with the budgeting process?
  • Who makes initial recommendations for items on the department budget?

Over half of respondents said that in terms of funding, their organization would dedicate more to IT.

However, another interesting trend emerged from this survey with regard to organizational IT spending. In this year’s survey, 48 percent of respondents said they felt executive management at their business valued IT funding as much as other departmental budgets. Last year, 65 percent of respondents said the IT budget was given equal importance within their organization. The portion of respondents who felt that their business values the IT budget less than other departmental budgets was up to 36 percent this year, from 21 percent in last year’s survey.

Within IT departments, a premium is being placed on security spending. Fifty-three percent of respondents said security will be a top priority in the 2018 budget. This isn’t terribly surprising after high-profile events in 2017 like the WannaCry, or WannaCrypt, attacks and the Equifax consumer data breach. Respondents listed hardware purchases, cloud services, and software purchases as other high priorities for IT funds.

To find out more about tech budgeting and spending for the upcoming year, download the full report.

Every month, TechRepublic Premium releases an original research report on a different topic related to business technology. Here are some past reports:

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September 27, 2017
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