How The IT Buy Goes Down

For more info: TechSalesMarketing@ubm.com ©2019 Property of Informa Tech. All Rights Reserved.
Research Overview
Informa Tech’s 2019 IT Buying Research was developed to gain critical insight into
business technology decision makers, and delves into:
The profile
of the modern
IT professional and
their organizations
Vendor
engagement
The collaborative
IT purchase
process
Work habits
and more!

The IT Professional
EXPERIENCED, EDUCATED AND INFLUENTIAL
Average age:
43
Gender gap:
84% Male
Average tenure
as an IT pro:
18 years
High Career Aspirations
31% aspire toward a C-Level
position of CEO, CIO, etc.
22% have already reached
their career aspiration

The IT Professional
DRIVING BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
Average personal
purchase involvement:
$2.9 million
52% make technology
decisions for their
entire organization
76% make technology
decisions for multiple
departments
How Their Time Is Spent Daily
1. Planning and delivering projects
2. IT leadership and talent
3. Innovation or strategy
4. Learning or education
5. Managing vendor relationships
IT leadership and talent moved from #3 to #2 priority since 2017
75%
work on five or fewer
IT projects at any
given time
Q: Thinking about your day-to-day activities, how is your time spent? Please rank the following where the top item (#1) is where you spend the most time.

IT Budgets
SECURITY & CLOUD SERVICES TAKE MAJORITY OF BUDGETS
Average Company
Total 2019 IT budget:
$246 million
51% say
their IT budget
will increase in
2019
Security 76%
Cloud and cloud services 64%
Networking 60%
Applications software and development 49%
Data and analytics 41%
Enterprise service management 28%
DevOps 21%
Contact center 12%
IT Budget Allocations in 2019
Q. How will your IT budget be allocated in 2019? Check all that apply.

Purchase Plans
TOP 10 TECHNOLOGY PURCHASES
Technologies or solutions their organization recently purchased or plans to purchase in next 12 months
29%
32%
34%
34%
35%
39%
40%
40%
48%
50%
Cloud applications
Mobility and wireless
Data protection
IT management
Security architecture
IT training/education
Servers
Storage
Cloud services
Networking

Collaborative IT Purchasing
Average number of
people in a tech
purchasing committee
Q. Approximately how many people are on the tech purchasing committee?
EVALUATE /
RECOMMEND
SELECT APPROVE
DEFINE
REQUIREMENTS
SET VENDOR
SHORT LIST
DETERMINE
THE NEED
IT Staff
Corporate Executive
Executive IT (CIO, VP of IT)
IT Management
Q. Which job function or title would you say is primarily responsible for each stage of a technology purchase (regardless of whether that job title describes you or not)? Top two job functions shown.
5
52% Use a formal
purchasing committee to
make technology decisions
Who Are IT Staff?
IT Architects, Analysts, Engineers, System Admins, Program Managers, Developers, etc.
TOP JOB FUNCTIONS THAT DRIVE EACH STAGE OF THE PURCHASE PROCESS

Content That Makes An Impact
A VARIETY OF CONTENT KEEPS VENDORS TOP OF MIND
1 Social media 1 Virtual events 1
Conferences &
trade shows
1 Videos 1 Research reports 1 Vendor websites
2
Email/electronic
newsletters
2
Conferences &
trade shows
2 Infographics 2 Virtual events 2 Vendor websites 2
Online training or
courses
3 Blogs 3
Email/electronic
newsletters
3
White papers or
case studies
(vendor sponsored)
3
Websites on
specific topics
3
Online training or
courses
3 Research reports
Q. At each stage of the technology purchase process, which types of content do you use to get information to help you at that particular stage? Select your top three content types down each
column for each stage.
EVALUATE /
RECOMMEND
SELECT APPROVE
DEFINE
REQUIREMENTS
SET VENDOR
SHORT LIST
DETERMINE
THE NEED

Tech Purchase Process Cycle
MOST CYCLES TAKE 6 - 12 MONTHS AFTER SCOPING THE SOLUTION
Q. For each of these technologies, approximately how long is the purchase process cycle from scoping out the solution to purchase?
Q. How does the length of the purchase cycle differ if you are purchasing from a new tech vendor, vs. a company you already work with or have installed?
0 – 3 Months 3 – 6 Months 6 – 12 Months 12+ Months
Networking
Security
Applications software & development
Data & analytics
Cloud & cloud services
DevOps
Enterprise service management
Contact center
20%
say the length of the
purchase cycle is
significantly longer
when purchasing from
a new vendor
Length of Purchase Process Cycle

Internal Factors Impacting the Buy
BUSINESS NEEDS & BROKEN SOLUTIONS TOP LIST
Q. What kind of internal organizational factors drive the purchase of technology at your organization? Check all that apply.
22%
24%
25%
26%
30%
30%
34%
37%
40%
44%
45%
53%
65%
68%
75%
New competitive pressures
Change in organization's management
Employee demand for new technologies
Desire to increase revenue
Changes in our industry
A growth opportunity or new market opportunity
Keeping up with customer needs and preferences
Incompatibility or high cost of maintaining legacy systems
Budget cuts or other financial pressures
Availability of new technologies
Compliance or regulatory issues
Need to optimize existing processes or improve performance
New security risks
Current solution is not working or is broken
Identification of a business need
New security
risks jumped
up from 57%
in 2017

Getting on the Short List
REPUTATION IS PARAMOUNT
How Vendors Can Get On The Short List For Consideration
Q. What actions or other factors from technology vendors influence your consideration or selection of that particular vendor’s tech solution? In other words, how does a tech vendor get on your
short list for consideration? Check all that apply.
Average number of
vendors included in the
RFP process; down
from 4.3 in 2017
3.128%
27%
24%
21%
Company reputation or vendor is a
recognized market leader
Can demonstrate how the technology
will solve our business problem
Responsiveness to our RFP
Communicates the technical benefits of
the solution

VENDORS DETERMINED EARLY IN THE PURCHASE PROCESS – DON’T MISS THE BOAT
Q. At what stage in the technology purchasing process do you typically begin to identify specific technology vendors?
Q. When putting together a tech vendor short list, how willing are you to look at new vendors, ones that you haven’t worked with before?
are very willing to look at
new vendors compared
to 32% in 2017
44%
At the very beginning, when the consideration
of a new investment is first initiated
23%
When we are defining our needs 27%
When we are allocating budgets 11%
When we are defining our business
requirements
14%
When we are defining our technical
requirements
12%
When we are researching a shortlist of
solutions for consideration
10%
When we are researching a shortlist of
vendors for consideration
3%
say they are somewhat
or very willing to look
at new vendors
91%
Stage of the Technology Purchase Process Specific Technology Vendors Are Identified

PURCHASE PROCESS WELL UNDERWAY BEFORE CONTACT IS INITIATED
66% say that
one-third or more of
the purchase process
is already complete
before they engage with
a tech sales rep
Q. In general, how much (what percentage) of a tech purchase is already complete before you engage with a technology sales rep?
42% are half way
or more through the
purchase process
before they engage
with a tech sales rep

DURING RFP PROCESS – AVOID MAKING THESE MISTAKES
Q. What constitutes a deal breaker when it comes to engaging with vendors in the technology purchase process? Check all that apply.
70%
59%
52% 48%
Vendor is selling, not
educating
Vendor doesn’t
adequately address risk
and compliance
Vendor doesn’t provide
adequate SLAs
Vendor’s reputation has
been tainted by a security
breach

Key Takeaways
76%of IT professionals surveyed
make technology decisions for
multiple departments
More than ¾ are allocating
budget to Security
50% say their organization recently
purchased or plan to purchase
Networking solutions
51%expect their IT budget to
increase in 2019
It takes a village: a technology
purchase involves many people,
not just the CIO for approval.
IT Staff and IT Management
drive most of the purchase
process from determining the
need to selecting a vendor
IT buyers use many editorially-
driven and vendor-driven sources
for information.
Tech marketers need a strong
paid, owned, earned media and
events strategy to ensure bases
are covered – especially critical for
new vendors
Vendors are determined early
in the purchase process
42% say they are already half
way through the purchase
process before they engage with
a tech sales rep

How The IT Buy Goes Down
Appendix
Methodology:
In Q1 2019, Informa Tech conducted an online survey of business and technology professionals to
delve into the profile of IT professionals in North America.
Final data is based on a total of 165 qualified IT and business respondents.
The margin of error for the total respondent base (N=165) +/- 7.5 percentage points.
Informa Tech was responsible for all programming and data analysis. These procedures were
carried out in strict accordance with standard market research practices.

Appendix
RESPONDENTS: PRIMARY JOB TITLE
Director/manager of IT 22%
IT or security staff 21%
IT Executive (CIO, CTO, VP of IT) 18%
Consultant (IT) 10%
Corporate executive (CEO, COO, President, VP) 9%
IT architect 7%
Software development, engineering 5%
Line of business 2%
R&D 1%

Appendix
RESPONDENTS: INDUSTRY
Government (federal/state/local) 14%
Consulting 10%
Education 9%
Healthcare/pharmaceuticals/biotech/biomedical 9%
Solutions provider/VAR/channel 9%
Computer/technology manufacturer 7%
Manufacturing and process (other than computer-related) 7%
Banking 4%
Financial services/VC/accounting 3%
Insurance 3%
Transportation/logistics 3%
Business services 3%
Non-profit/trade association 3%
Computer/technology wholesaler/distributor 2%
Legal 2%
Wholesale/trade/distribution/retail (non-computer related) 2%
Other 10%

Appendix
TECHNOLOGIES OR SOLUTIONS THEIR ORGANIZATION RECENTLY PURCHASED OR PLANS TO
PURCHASE IN NEXT 12 TO 24 MONTHS
Databases platforms/tools 24%
Cloud management 24%
Consulting/System integration 22%
Enterprise applications 22%
Private/hybrid cloud 22%
Application management 21%
Help desk support 19%
DevOps 17%
Collaboration/Unified communications 15%
Internet of Things 12%
AI 12%
Software-defined infrastructure 11%
Containers 8%
Contact center 8%
Converged/Hyper-converged infrastructure 7%
Other 5%
Networking 50%
Cloud services 48%
Servers 40%
Storage 40%
IT training/education 39%
Security architecture 35%
Data protection 34%
IT management 34%
Mobility and wireless 32%
Cloud applications 29%
Internet/WAN 29%
Data analytics 28%
Threat intelligence 27%
Application/platform security 27%
Virtualization 27%
Application development 26%

Appendix
INFORMATION SOURCES
Q. What information sources do you use to stay informed? Check all that apply.
Webinars 67%
Vendor websites 59%
Online articles/feature editorial 56%
White papers or case studies (non-vendor
sponsored)
55%
Email/electronic newsletters 55%
Websites on specific topics 55%
Online training or courses 53%
White papers or case studies (vendor sponsored) 53%
Research reports 47%
Independently sponsored expos or trade shows
(e.g. Interop, Enterprise Connect)
42%
Virtual events 40%
Blogs 35%
Tech vendor sponsored conferences with focused
content
32%
Tech vendor sponsored expos or trade shows
(e.g. VMWorld, Dreamforce)
30%
Videos 30%
Independently sponsored conferences with
focused content (e.g. ICMI Contact Center Demo,
HDI Annual)
29%
Digital radio/podcasts 18%
Social media 17%
Infographics 14%

Appendix
RESPONDENTS: COMPANY REVENUE
$5 billion or
more 12%
$1 billion to
$4.9 billion ,
10%
$500 million to
$999.9 million ,
9%
$100 million to
$499.9 million ,
5%
$50 million to
$99.9 million ,
15%
$6 million to
$49.9 million ,
21%
Less than $6
million , 15%
Government/
non-profit
13%

Appendix
RESPONDENTS: COMPANY SIZE
# of employees
38%
32%
30%
1,000 or more
100-999
Under 100

Appendix
THE IT PRO’S PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT
Q. When making technology purchase decisions, at what stage(s) do you personally get involved? Check all that apply.
Respondents are highly involved at all stages of the purchase process
76%
EVALUATE /
RECOMMEND
53%
SELECT
38%
APPROVE
73%
DEFINE
REQUIREMENTS
58%
SET VENDOR
SHORT LIST
70%
DETERMINE
THE NEED

How The IT Buy Goes Down

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