What Determines IT Spending Priorities?

Despite initially finding this article a little difficult to comprehend, I felt that it offered an interesting insight into the IT spending habits of different sized firms and how each of these firms prioritized their IT spending . Overall I found the data on how respondents IT expenditures over the past 3 years had changed the cost and quality of their products / services and the revenues of that firm of most interest. Namely that 71% of the firms surveyed found that IT expenditures led to improvements in product and service quality whereas only 51% of the firms reported that increased IT expenditures lead to higher overall revenues. I found this interesting as it shows that whilst increased IT spending may lead to an increase in product quality and a decrease in cost to the end consumer it can have a detrimental effect on a business’s overheads.  I also found it interesting that the data showed that smaller firms often spend less on IT security that larger firms which in my view is a mistake as targets for security attacks are not usually chosen on firm size. Overall I felt that this article offered an interesting look into IT related spending habits, even if it was a bit hard to understand in places.