Yesterday McKinsey Quarterly released a report which outlined what global executives think about technology spending and usefulness. It is a well done survey and analysis with some interesting take-aways:

• Only 10-20% of allocated budgets are used for improving the overall business process, the remainder is used for IT operations and maintenance.
• IT is frequently viewed as a “black box” with the perceived inability to provide tangible value to the business side.

There is much more to the article but the trends seem to point to more available resources being devoted to improving the business as a whole. Fortunately, our experience in e-Sourcing has been the Procurement Departments frequently control their own budgets and do not need IT to be involved. However, there are some that have a combined approach and need IT to sign off on products. This research could provide hope to those that need to work with IT teams in order to bring in new, helpful solutions for strategic sourcing.