Technology Purchases Funded by Line of Business Budgets Are Approaching Parity with IT-Funded Purchases

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The share of worldwide corporate IT spending that is funded by non-IT business units is forecast to reach 47% in 2019, an increase of more than 3% over 2015, according to the new Worldwide Semiannual IT Spending Guide: Line of Business from the International Data Corporation (IDC). The new Spending Guide quantifies the purchasing power of line of business (LoB) technology buyers by providing a detailed examination of where the funding for a variety of IT purchases originates.

"3rd Platform technologies such as cloud, mobility, big data, and social business have created the underpinnings for business process transformation and, in some cases, business model transformation. With such high stakes, the line of business units are increasingly taking a front seat in technology initiatives by flexing their budgetary muscle," said Eileen Smith, Program Director, Customer Insights and Analysis.

IDC's Line of Business taxonomy identifies two major types of technology spending – projects funded by IT and projects funded by technology buyers outside of IT. Joint IT projects can be funded by either IT or the functional business unit while Shadow IT projects are funded from the functional area budget without the knowledge, involvement or support of the IT department. In North America (the United States and Canada), projects funded by line of business units accounted for 58.2% or $324 billion of all corporate IT spending in 2015. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), 38.1% of IT spending came from technology buyers outside of IT while 29.3% of IT spending in the Asia/Pacific region was for LoB-funded projects. In Latin America, the share of IT spending funded by business units was 25.5% in 2015. The share of LoB funding is forecast to gradually increase in all four regions over the next four years.

From a functional perspective, IDC's technology buyer research focuses on twelve purchasing segments. Industry-Specific Operations, which includes unique industry-specific functions that are required for running day-to-day operations (ie, manufacturing plant floor, claims processing, etc.) is the largest segment of LoB spending ($252.7 billion worldwide in 2015) but the smallest segment in terms of LoB spending share (45.5%). The two segments with the largest LoB share of IT spending – Supply Chain Management (54.4% in 2015) and Customer Service (53.9%) – are also the second and third largest segments in terms of spending size. Much like the regional trend, IDC expects all twelve functional purchasing segments to increase their share of IT spending over the forecast period. The fastest growing functional areas are Marketing, with a 6.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), followed by Security and Risk (6.0%), and Customer Service (4.8%).

The IDC Worldwide Semiannual IT Spending Guide: Line of Business quantifies the purchasing power of the non-IT department technology buyer by detailing enterprise IT spending for 20 technologies across 12 corporate functional areas in 16 enterprise industries in eight regions and 53 countries. This IDC Spending Guide provides a granular view of the market for IT spending from a geographic, industry, functional (LoB), and technology perspective. Unlike any other research in the industry, the LoB Spending Guide was designed to help business and IT decision makers to better understand the scope and direction of corporate technology spending over the next five years.

About IDC Spending Guides

IDC's Spending Guides provide a granular view of key technology markets from a regional, vertical industry, use case, buyer, and technology perspective. The spending guides are delivered via pivot table format or custom query tool, allowing the user to easily extract meaningful information about each market by viewing data trends and relationships.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company.