MARCH 2022
IT Buyer Survey #3, BCG November 2021
Key takeaways Source:
.
IT budgets are poised to increase as prices rise
- 82% of respondents expect their companies’ IT spending to grow in 2022, in part due to inflationary pressures,
- with respondents anticipating a 5.1% weighted average price increase
Half of respondents expect to expand their IT investments
- At least 50% of buyers expect to increase their AI, machine learning (ML), analytics, and cloud services systems or suppliers,
- while roughly a third expect to consolidate their server infrastructure
Risk management is an ever-increasing focus
- IT buyers increasingly choose risk management initiatives as a major IT priority, although strategic advantage initiatives are still the leading focus
Only marginal changes are expected in cloud investing
- Workloads remain heavily on the cloud,
- with less than 20% of buyers planning to shift any workloads off the cloud in the next two years;
- those shifting are mainly pulling back in enterprise resource planning because of data security concerns
Decision-making power is diffusing slightly
- IT decisions are still predominantly made by IT;
- however, substantial power is shifting to operations teams, particularly in IT operations management and devices
Remote-selling concerns are waning
- Many buyers have become more comfortable signing large contracts without in-person engagement
- and are more willing to sign new vendors remotely
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*43X25lFlvgWmbdoTt3MFrQ.png)
IT spending is expected to increase in 2022 across most major industries, especially financial services, education, and technology — healthcare comes 4th (5,7%)
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*q4SvhEeU5SmXOAghkmMO8w.png)
68% of buyers expect prices to rise in 2022, supported by budget expansion
Respondents expect to expand some areas of IT investment and consolidate others
Top expansion areas are : AI/ML; Cloud Services; Analytics; Servicy Infrastructure
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*n55KGDfTWy2d9Hj5efua0Q.png)
Risk management is an increasing priority for IT buyers, although strategic advantage remains the leading focus
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*cZyfylokhSuOxyUjyB2xnA.png)
Risk management initiatives saw the greatest year-on-year acceleration
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*xHzHA_nOOYHpH5kw6hy6lQ.png)
Less than 20% of buyers are shifting workloads off the cloud; those shifting are mainly pulling back in enterprise resource planning
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*Q8GH2wyeFGoRCNVWI3Q0pA.png)
Workloads remain heavily on the cloud, at 40% to 70% per category, with marginal changes since Q4 2020
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*i1k94JZ6GsYTpNzYruUyew.png)
While still predominantly driven by IT, substantial decision-making power is shifting to operations
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*QsLl4GzEYoh57zUJryAqOg.png)
Concerns with remote transactions are waning slightly, although buyers are still more comfortable dealing with the vendors they know
Leading concerns with remote buying now revolve around stakeholder engagement
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1311/1*6d6XarnuU94Z7CG6a7KArQ.png)
Originally published at https://web-assets.bcg.com