infoTECH Feature

June 15, 2015

Ovum Debuts IT Spending, Staffing Benchmarking Tool

When deploying IT in the enterprise, gaining sign-off among the C–suite is often easier said than done. Demonstrating a clear ROI case in terms of operational savings is a must—but it’s also necessary to show its role in other business outcomes, like customer satisfaction. And that’s where metrics come in.

Metrics, and in particular comparative metrics, are linchpins for IT decision makers to convince C level executives in their decisions related to information communications technology (ICT) budgets. These are also used by enterprises for making fact-based decisions on their ICT expenditure. 

“Decisions on budget allocations do not depend only on process improvements provided by IT,” explained research firm Ovum (News - Alert) Ltd., which just launched a benchmarking tool to fill this need. “It also depends on how cost-effective and valued are these services to an organization. Additionally, it is also imperative for enterprises to understand how their peers are spending in similar areas.”

Ovum’s Enterprise ICT Spend and Staffing Metrics tool offers insight into estimated ICT expenditure and staffing levels for organizations of all types across the globe. The tool leverages the wealth of information that Ovum has collected around the IT spending patterns of enterprises and generates an informed picture of demand in the form of IT spend and staffing estimates based on company demographic information, including IT staffing by segments and sub-segment.

Ovum’s benchmarking tool is presented in an interactive that allows users to benchmark IT spending in 60 geographies across 19 broad industry verticals and eight employee bands. For instance, it can show overall ICT spend benchmarks in percentage for a financial service enterprise with revenue of $60 billion, headquartered in the U.K.

“Benchmarking, using comparative IT metrics, provides a way of communicating value of internal IT to business,” said Vinay Gupta, Ovum senior analyst and author of the tool. “However, it is important to select relevant metrics as a benchmark.”

The tool provides benchmarks for external and internal spend done by an enterprise across several segments: Infrastructure, applications, communications and IT management. Additionally, the tool provides staffing benchmarks across those segments.

Gupta added: “Benchmarks are not just numbers, rather these are perceptions, and must map to enterprises’ business strategy or goals.”




Edited by Maurice Nagle
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