Current IT Trends: SIM Report of 2018

This article presents the major findings from the Society forInformation Management’s (SIM) 2018 IT Trends Study. IT spending asa percentage of revenue is up sharply to 6.08% over last year’s5.04% and the ten-year average of 4.55%. Correspondingly, 74.0% oforganizations report increases in their IT budgets compared to71.0% last year. Most of this spending is on people: 49.1 % isspent on Employees, Contractors, and Consultants; 39.3 % onHardware, Software, and Facilities; and 11.6 % on Cloud Computingand Other. Hiring is increasing, with 61.3% of organizationsincreasing their hiring this year and 70.0% predicting increasedhiring in 2018. Also, 94.8 % of the organizations report grantingIT salary raises this year. In the areas of overlapping budgetcategories, “Keeping the IT Lights On” is the largest, followed bySoftware Development & Maintenance, IT Capital Investment,Outsourcing, Cybersecurity, and Business Analytics. In terms of newIT capital investments, organizations are investing in BusinessAnalytics, followed by Security, Cloud, Application Development,and ERPs. Despite the spending, however, it appears that moreorganizations could and should be doing more aboutcybersecurity.

Question for Discussion:

Based on the attached SIM IT Concerns Survey discuss thefollowing:

1. Which of the top 10 concerns would you rate as the top 3 andwhy?

2.What are the reasons for the new concerns added in the latestsurvey? Do you agree and why?

3.Which of the 10 Most Worrisome would you rate as top 3 andwhy?

4. Based on your reading of the findings of the SIM IT TrendsReport and your own understanding of the field how would you as aCIO prepare for and respond to these issues and trends?

Submit a 2-page write up on the above.