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to have an understanding of this dynamic and changing
relationship between IT and business units, as well as
the roles the different “voices” play in technology pur-
chasing decisions as organizations transition to becom-
ing digital businesses.
“As technology becomes more accessible and more
widespread,” write CompTIA researchers in a new re-
port on serving digital organizations, “entire organiza-
tions are changing their approach and redefining the
processes for choosing, implementing and supporting
business systems.”
Only 19 percent of companies surveyed by Comp-
TIA, for instance, report that the IT functions still own
the entire technology budget. That’s the same per-
centage of companies that said technology budgets
are completely in the control of business units. An ad-
ditional 9 percent said that business units control the
“majority of the technology budget.” Of course, there
are differences in budget distribution depending on
company size.
At small companies (1 to 99 employees), business
units are most likely to hold the technology purse
strings, CompTIA notes, as they are less likely to
have formal IT functions. The most common model
among mid-sized firms (100 to 499 employees) is for
business units to have discretionary funds while IT
departments hold the majority of the budget. Large
enterprises (500-plus employees), meanwhile, use a
variety of methods, but IT generally retains at least
half of the budget.
The good news is, the distribution of funds has not
adversely impacted the budget of IT functions, with
more than nine out of 10 firms reporting steady or
growing spending, and in nearly half of businesses, both
IT and business unit technology budgets are growing.
Even so, the changing roles are apparent to both
sides, says CompTIA. “The fact that there is negligible
difference between IT respondents and business re-
spondents shows that all groups have good visibility
to what is happening across the organization.”
Source: ITU
Years to Achieve One Billion Users (from Launch)
Source: ITU
Source: CompTIA
Changes in Technology Budgets
48%
51%
46%
45%
52%
49%
46%
49%
0%
20%
40%
2%
2%
6%
4%
Source: CompTIA
Source: CompTIA
Companies Moving Away from BYOD as the Primary
20
10
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Developed
World
Developing
LDCs
12.1%
Pen
Mobile broadband
subscriptions
Facebook users
Mobile cellular
subscriptions
Google users
Fixed lines
Fixed broadband
subscriptions
5 years
8 years
11 years
13 years
TBC
125 years
2013
2014
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Source: ITU
Countries with Access to Networks
200
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2G
3G
4G
Countries with access to network
IT Function Increase
IT Function Steady
IT Function Decrease
Business Unit Increase
Business Unit Steady
Business Unit Decrease
Business Respondents
IT Respondents
Source: CompTIA
Changes in Technology Budgets
2%
2%
6%
4%
IT Function Increase
IT Function Steady
IT Function Decrease
Business Unit Increase
Business Unit Steady
Business Unit Decrease
Business Respondents
IT Respondents
Source: Parks Associates
SMBs that Are Very Familiar with IT Services
Handset Unit Sales Forecasts by Segment
Changes in the Technology Decision Process
45%
5%
50%
34%
58%
8%
No BYOD
Partial BYCD
Full BYOD
Online payme t
processing
Cloud torage/backup
Remote IT support
services
Onsite IT support
services
Network security/
content filtering
Hosted/cloud-based
productivity apps
VPN/Remote access
Source: CompTIA
Changes in Technology Budgets
48%
51%
46%
45%
52%
49%
46%
49%
57%
48%
39%
43%
39%
49%
33%
29%
2%
2%
6%
4%
les
tract
ement
Configure-price-
quote (CPQ)
Proposal
automation
Price
optimization or
deal
negotiation
tools
23%
42%
28%
41%
22%
30%
10%
ablement portal adopter
All others
Source: ITU
2G
3G
4G
IT Function Increase
IT Function Steady
IT Function Decrease
Business Unit Increase
Business Unit Steady
Business Unit Decrease
Technology objectives are more
business focused
Ideas come from different areas
of the organization
More departments are involved
in technology decisions
Final decision on technology
is made outside the IT function
Business Respondents
IT Respondents
Source: CompTIA
Changes in the Technology Decision Process
IT Respondents
Business Respondents
21
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