Businesses will spend 6.2 percent more on IT in 2021 than they did last year despite the ongoing economic effects associated with the global Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report. Automation will be at the center of that growth, and the report from Gartner predicts investments by organizations in IT to reach $3.9 trillion this year.
“CIOs have a balancing act to perform in 2021; saving cash and expanding IT,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner. “With the economy returning to a level of certainty, companies are investing in IT in a manner consistent with their expectations for growth, not their current revenue levels. Digital business, led by projects with a short Time to Value, will get more money and board level attention going into 2021.”
Businesses are in the midst of an unprecedented acceleration in their digital transformation road maps, according to the CIOs polled by Gartner. The forced move to remote work is looking permanent in many cases, resulting in advancing digital plans by at least five years.
“Optimization initiatives, such as hyperautomation, will continue and the focus of these projects will remain on returning cash and eliminating work from processes, not just tasks,” said Lovelock.