Challenging dodgy generalisations on IT spending

I think you'll find it's not as simple as that

Reg Reader Research One of the silliest concepts peddled by large industry analyst firms is "The CIO agenda". Listen to some of them and you would get the impression that everyone running an IT department woke up one morning and decided the priority would now be Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, grid computing, SOA, cloud, analytics, mobile, IoT, software development, DevOps, or one of the other "critical imperatives" that have been foisted on us over the years.

Digital transformation is the latest such "do or die" idea to emerge and supposedly dominate the "agenda".

When you get past all of the hype, spin and inevitable 'me too' industry marketing, there's usually (though not always) something of potential value underpinning the noise. But whatever it is will be interesting to different organisations in different ways at different times and for different reasons. Meanwhile, all the stuff that was important to you before typically remains important – even though some of it might not be that glamorous.

Against this background of contrived generic industry agendas and associated bandwagons, our latest reader study looks at some of the more fundamental factors impacting which IT investments get prioritised, relegated to the bottom of the list, or even blocked.

And on the basis that plans and decisions are as likely to be influenced by the wrong things as well as the right ones, we have tried to be realistic in the way we have asked questions. Have your procurement or finance people ever forced you down a route that you know is not in the long term interests of the organisation? Are senior managers obsessed with cloud, while having no appreciation of the practicalities? Are blinkered viewpoints or old-fashioned ways of thinking holding back progress?

Whether healthy or not, we'd love to know what influences the IT agenda in your organisation and how well business needs are actually being served as a result. Click here to participate. ®