Flexera released the
findings from the
Flexera 2023 Tech Spend Pulse. This annual
report investigates how the maturity of Hybrid ITAM and FinOps practices,
executed by IT asset management (ITAM), FinOps, security, software asset
management (SAM) and hardware asset management (HAM) teams impacts the
value they deliver to their organizations. It also provides a view of the
future of these teams as they evolve to serve the needs of the
digital enterprise.
As digital
transformation accelerates, enterprises navigate inflation, workplace norms
change, and the demand for innovation grows. Many IT
professionals are returning to offices; the associated vendor
costs and hefty cloud commitments are rising, as is the challenge of optimizing
spend. Though wasteful IT spending is subsiding, cost optimization
decision-making remains laborious. A thorough understanding of IT assets
is vital; top organizations leverage data for decisions, prioritize spend
efficiency and harness the power of artificial intelligence.
"Despite
strides in curbing IT waste, the battle persists," said Cyndi Tackett, SVP of
Marketing at Flexera. "Flexera's research shows an increase in vendor pricing,
while companies have significant artificial intelligence
(AI) investments planned. At the same time, many firms grapple with
complex IT decisions due to a lack of visibility. There's been a notable
decline in remote IT work, pointing to shifting workforce dynamics and the
evolving role of tech."
Highlights from the Flexera 2023 Tech Spend Pulse include:
-
Inflation drives high IT vendor pricing: For the
first time, more than9 out of 10 (91%)identified increased
vendor prices as the top spend optimization challenge. The second challenge,
spend efficiency (avoiding waste), rose from 81% to 87% YoY
-
Investments inAIsurge: Enterprises
expect to grow artificial intelligence/machine learning(AI/ML)the
most:32% see a significant AI/ML increase; 44% a slight
one. Enterprises use external IT resources for specialized skills, with planned
changes to external IT resources rising from 59% to 68% YoY for AI/ML
-
IT work-from-home rates plunge: Remote work
fell from 74%to 39%YoY. Full-time in-office IT staff grew from
26%to 30%over the past year. Full-time with partial
remote increased from 16%to 27%. Full-time remote declined from
45%to 23% YoY
-
IT waste estimates improve, but the battle is not
over: Earlier this year, the Flexera 2023 State
of ITAM showed between 32%and 36%wasted tech spend
(36%desktop; 33% datacenter; 32% SaaS; and
32% IaaS/PaaS). TheFlexera 2023 Tech Spend Pulse indicates
improvement, possibly due to cost optimization. However, figures may be
influenced by optimistic enterprise views. Wasted spend is estimated at
27%for desktop software, 23%for datacenter software,
21%for SaaS, and 19% for IaaS/PaaS
-
Lack of IT visibility hinders decisions: 81%of
respondents cited both the complexity of and delays in decision-making as top
IT challenges, with insufficient quality data also being a concern
Full survey results
are available in the Flexera 2023 Tech
Spend Pulse. The report provides a high-level perspective
on technology and spending issues that concern senior procurement and IT
leaders as they develop strategies and make decisions that influence the
trajectory of their businesses. 506 technical professionals and executive
leaders worldwide participated in the Flexera 2023 Tech Spend
Pulse survey in the summer of 2023. Survey participants include
professionals across industries and context areas. All numbers and percentages
are rounded to the nearest whole number.