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So who makes the decisions on IT spend? Where does the seat of IT power sit? How can you keep your finger on the pulse of IT strategy? Let Redshift Research show you what they've found out from reviewing over 16,000 key decision makers globally.
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How IT Investment decisions are made in large business
How blind targeting the C-Level leads to missed opportunities
How IT decision making is often perceive
The “way to do it” is to target the “C-Level”
Holy grail of B2B marketingWant to find a magic formula for bypassing middle managers
Want to get one killer sales meeting
10 minutes with “the man”, make killer pitch and clinch mega-deal,
then dot the “I’s” and cross the “t’s”
When influencing the IT and technology markets
The reality…
Approach• Nothing more
than chasing gold at the end of a rainbow
Real danger
• Marketers become hypnotised by C-Level executives, betting everything on the one big prize
In doing so…
• Potential to miss out on many significant opportunities
The real world – 9 times out of 10…
Dec
isio
n m
akin
g Doesn’t always follow authoritarian model (nothing happens unless signed off by a “main man”)
Real
ity Many reasons why C-Level has little or no involvement in investment decisions.
Who
can
sig
n-off Many people
at different levels and from different functions can influence IT decisions.
Decision making in large corporate businesses
So who actually signs off IT spend?
The picture of decision making in large organisations is far more complex than a simplistic C-Level-centric view of decision making
IT Function (excluding CIO's); 29%
CIO; 7%
Other C-Level; 12%Sales and Marketing; 12%
Operations; 9%
Finance & Procurement; 10%
General Admin & Cler-ical; 11%
Other; 10%
Globally (16,422 decision makers) (using CINT in-formation)
Individuals with IT decision making authority in large businesses (500+ staff)
CIOs and Other C-Level staff = 19%
81% of people signing off IT investments are not C-Level
‘IT Decision Makers’ are the key
People working in the IT function, excluding the CIO, are also key
Lot of investment
• Consist of departmental level and/or local projects
• Don’t impact on the whole business
• E.g. router replacement, network installation, data storage
Many projects are small
• Collectively can add up to a substantial amount of investment
29% of people who sign-off on IT investments work in the IT function at a lower level
People outside the IT function have a major influence in IT investment• Will consult those in IT when a
project that affects their function is being considered
• Individual departments have their own budgets that sometimes get spent on IT
Example – Sales and marketing• Sales & Marketing people can
organise and fund fairly sizeable IT projects. Especially to support digital marketing campaigns.
• These include building new websites and developing social media tools
Targeting IT decision makers
But some CIOs are more directly involved than
others
Targeting C-Level
• Usually relate to large corporate wide projects• These include ERP implementation or a complete IT overhaul
There are still many situations where
targeting C-Level will be appropriate
• Decisions like network architecture, server and storage strategies may not require CIO involvement.
• May depend on the background of the CIO
Decisions may sit with people at managerial level in the IT function
• Infrastructure and Architecture background = may wish to drive major infrastructure projects
• Application background = may wish to leave key infrastructure decisions to IT Managers, Network Managers and Network Administrators with more experience in these fields.
CIO background
Summary
Targeting C-Level might look like a clever way to get big results quickly, but is only the case when strategy is appropriately employed
When not, it runs the risk of being nothing more than lazy marketing leading to real opportunities and real decision makers being overlooked
“Horses for courses”
Case of “horses for courses” – C-Level’s unlikely to get involved too much in departmental initiatives
• So its far more effective (both in terms of cost of interview and relevance of audience) to interview/understand IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) as opposed to Chief Information Officers.
• Redshift can help you to get the best results for your survey by helping to target the right audience for your questionnaire
Let Redshift help you, we know the Tech space
We look forward to working with you
Tel: +44 1732 356399
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212-539-3214 +441732 356399300 Park Ave South Commotion House11th Floor Morley RoadNew York Tonbridge, KentNY 10010 TN9 1 RA
With a background in B2B and development of consumer panels, Redshift Research has a broad pedigree in marketing research consultancy. We provide audience insight, in-depth data analysis and advice to help businesses stay ahead of the curve. - We enable our clients to plan, create, transform and engage.
Redshift use a range of primary research, analytical and modeling techniques to explore original and public data, social and digital data.
While Redshift is based in the UK and US, the company works across the globe, across time zones and languages. Our consortium relationships give us access to 10m respondents in 60 countries worldwide via our online panel Crowdology.
www.redshiftresearch.co.ukwww.redshiftinsight.com
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