The recession has certainly impacted all business units; the IT department is not immune to the cost-cutting measures taking place in all organizations, from large enterprise to small. Mark Schlak’s recent article for CIO News provides technology companies with good insight about CIO audience investment priorities for 2009.
In his article, “Economic downturn hits IT budgets.”
Mark points out many CIO’s will continue to consolidate infrastructure while focusing their spending towards business application technology. Bottom line, this article suggests that not all CIO’s are cutting technology investments, which means that opportunities still exist for a technology company to sell its solutions.
The CIO is still charged with supporting their overall company business goals for 2009, and the funding devoted to business application technology—that will ensure these goals are achieved—will be under review throughout the year.
As Mark writes in his article, here are a few highlights of CIO’s technology spending priorities:
- Business software budgets are increasing at 36% of shops, with 32% holding the line
- Business intelligence is the biggest software winner, with spending at 57% of shops; business process management was the second-highest priority at 38%
- Only 27% reported reducing their development efforts
- Software as a Service will see a gain at 21% of IT departments
The climate of the economy suggests that many of these IT departments are open to reviewing technology solutions that address overall corporate business goals, especially a business application that will improve process or decrease infrastructure costs and offer a unique solution towards more efficient collaboration.
Six tips to ensure you market your technology solution more effectively:
- Your marketing plan should address the IT department’s main priorities.
- Review your messaging to communicate how the benefits of your technology are addressing these needs.
- Ensure your sales force is aware of and knowledgeable about their prospects’ corporate business goals.
- Create lead generation activities and supporting collateral that can demonstrate how your technology solution aligns with corporate business goals.
- Aggressively market using a fully integrated effort. These CIO’s have not stopped all their spending and are most likely more open to meeting with new vendors.
- Set the right expectation. Although many CIO’s and IT departments are open to review, the timing for reviews, pilot programs and final decision have slowed.
