Presentation Title

Role & Influence of the Technology Decision-Maker

Conducted across the IDG Enterprise brands: CIO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, ITworld & Network World2015The 2015 IDG Enterprise Role & Influence of the Technology Decision-Maker survey was completed with the goal of gaining insight into the evolving structure of IT organizations, and the role and influence of IT decision-makers in todays corporations. The research examines the involvement of IT decision-makers during each stage of the IT purchase process and the primary influences and information sources they rely on throughout the purchase process. The study has focused on the IT purchase process over the 10 years it has been conducted, but has continued to evolve in an effort to understand the stakeholders and their information needs. New this year we take a closer look at the IT organization and how its structure has changed over time, and how organizations are unearthing new technologies to help drive the business forward. We also revisit the strategic partner relationship, and the IT steering committee function from previous years.0Purpose and Methodology1Source: IDG Enterprise Role & influence of the Technology Decision-Maker Study, 2015Survey SampleIDG Enterprise1,249 respondentsAudience BaseCIO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, ITworld, and Network World site visitors, LinkedIn Forums and email invitations to audience base. In addition we included IDG Australia/ New Zealand sister brands, CIO and Computerworld.Survey MethodSurvey GoalTo provide in-depth information about the evolving role and influence of IT decision-makers in todays corporations:IT Models at use in organizations today and how that effects organizational outlook.The role of technology decision-makers in the IT purchasing process, and who they partner with.Primary influences and information sources used in todays IT purchasing process.CollectionOnline QuestionnaireNumber of Questions27 (incl. demographics)

IDG Enterprises 2015 Role & Influence survey was conducted online between March 22, 2015 and April 16, 2015 to gain a better understanding of organizations' purchase process for IT products and services. A total of 1,249 qualified respondents participated in the survey. In order to qualify for this survey, respondents must have indicated that they were personally involved in the purchase process for IT products and services at their organizations. Audience members of IDG Enterprise U.S. brands (CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, ITworld and Network World) were asked to take the survey via popup and email invitations. Respondents were offered a chance to win one of two $250 cash prizes as an incentive for completing the survey. The study was also field across our sister brands in New Zealand/Australia, CIO and Computerworld

The margin of error for a sample size of 1,249 is +/ 2.8 percentage points. For the purposes of this presentation, "enterprise" refers to organizations with 1,000+ employees and, and "small" or SMB refers to organizations with less than 1,000 employees. For questions requiring respondents to select a single answer, percentages may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.

1Understanding IT Models Creates Understanding of Decision Makers & Influencers2Q: Which one of the following best describes how your companys IT organization is structured today?Source: IDG Enterprise Role & influence of the Technology Decision-Maker Study, 2015

Q18. (new) Which one of the following best describes how your companys IT organization is structured today?

Understanding the type of IT organization you are selling into will provide insights into who the influencers are, and organizations differences you need to navigate.

Today 55% of IT organizations are centralized, giving CIOs control of the IT budget and technology assets. The remainder are federated (37%), having some IT decisions and assets distributed among business units, or decentralized (8%) with fully-independent IT business units. Large companies are more likely to favor federated (50%) compared to small organizations (26%) which makes sense given the distributed model that comes with larger, more matrixed organizations, and ability to remain centralized in smaller organizations (centralized: 66% SBM; 42% enterprise). Both Enterprise and SMB reported 8% decentralized.

We do see some slight shifts in IT model by industry with Services having a higher incidence of Centralized (63%), with a commensurate lower level of Federated (29%); and with Government which has an even split between Centralized and Federated at 46% each.

Centralized remains the most prevalent model across geographies however more non-US organizations (60%) than US organizations (54%) indicated this model, versus Federated (29% non-US vs. 38% US), and Decentralized (11% non-US vs. 8% US), . Interestingly this has flipped from two years ago when we looked at IT models when more companies in the U.S. had Centralized IT organizations (69%) than Non-U.S. companies (55%) and non-U.S. companies were slightly more likely to have Federated (33% vs. 25%) and Decentralized (12% vs. 6%).

2Central Role of Tech. Extends IT Focus & Influence 3Q. Are you involved in any of the following activities at your organization?Source: IDG Enterprise Role & influence of the Technology Decision-Maker Study, 2015

Q1. Are you involved in any of the following activities at your organization?

While the tech titles drive the tech-focused activities you would expect, including setting IT standards and policies, setting IT project goals, negotiating vendor contracts, and budgeting within the IT department, their influence extends to the business side as well (particularly at the executive level), with a high level of engagement in business project steering committees, setting business standards and policies, and setting project goals.

New this year we updated a selection to be collaboration with departments outside of IT on projects or technical needs (from participate in business project steering committee) to delve into how IT is working with other departments within the organization, and we can see a high level of involvement across both executive IT and IT management in this activity.

We also see that the exec. IT respondents are involved in more of these activities than their colleagues with an average of 5.1, compared with 3.9 for IT management, 2.8 for IT pros, and 2.9 for business management.

Other interested differences in volume of activity (number of activities) are seen with IT model and company size:Centralized 4.7Federated 4.0Decentralized 3.5