Corporate IT spending for 2016, a shift to the cloud

A company’s IT investment budget is one that needs to be prepared in advance, and studied in depth.
It’s all a question of anticipating needs, so as not to find yourself on the wrong side of the road, while the others are speeding along in the left-hand lane.
To avoid being overtaken, investing in IT has become essential, systematic and even recommended.

The trend in IT spending is quite clear, and companies are likely to move away from pure IT investments (computers, terminals, smartphones, printers, tablets, etc.) towards investments in “software” and, more precisely, in the Cloud.

And when a company moves towards SFA (Sale Force Automation) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management), the changeover is unsurprisingly less costly, and prices are even pulled down, given the high level of competition.

According to the various studies on IT spending forecasts for 2016 and 2017, Forrester and Gartner don’t agree on every point, and don’t have the same forecasts across the board, but they do agree on one thing: cloud computing is leading the way, and spending will move towards more SaaS and more PaaS.
Indeed, software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) are leading the way, enabling greater simplification and automation, and increasing much-needed flexibility.

This marked shift towards software should also increase access to Open Source, limiting unnecessary expenditure, so that you only buy what you really need, over time.
In fact, this is one of the major advantages that tips the balance in favor of cloud computing: rationalizing expenditure and focusing it on what’s useful, without going for the superfluous.

Among the major benefits sought from cloud computing, companies will be directing their SaaS choices towards investments in CRM, talent management and analytics.
In other words, they’ll be moving towards more business intelligence, to better identify market trends and improve decision-making.

All these figures lead us to believe that companies will further consolidate their digital identity, and move up a gear in the way they manage their IT investments.

And for Switzerland, Forrester announced at the start of the year that IT spending would grow by 3.1% compared to 2015, placing Switzerland ahead of France, alongside Italy and just behind Germany and the UK.
A forthcoming reality check by the end of 2016 will tell us whether or not the predicted figures were right.
But in any case, the trend looks set to continue for some time yet, and companies should benefit from a price battle that will turn to their advantage…