The key ICT budget trends for European utilities for 2014 according to IDC.
Because of the economic slump, certain realities progressively emerge in Europe:
European utilities continue to be under huge pressure to reduce Capex and Opex related
to ICT. CIOs are facing significant challenges in determining where to make the
most effective budget allocations. CIOs are expected to undertake new
initiatives to deliver business value. CIOs are challenged to reduce the
expenditure related to routine IT activities, especially reducing maintenance
and employee expenses.
Therefore, the IDC Energy Insights recent annual survey of European utilities captured by
Connectikpeople.co revealed that European utilities have made their IT
operations more efficient, bringing down costs, favoring the allocation of IT
budget for growth.
Connectikpeople.co has captured for you, the following key ICT budget
trends for
European utilities for 2014:- ‘’After years of utilities internalizing IT spending, the direction is changing. Not only did European utility firm executives indicate that the greater part of IT spending would be external, but this externalization of IT spending is expected to continue, as 6.6% of utility survey respondents expect to increase their share of external IT spending in the near future.
- European utilities identify "integrated and secure access to data and applications," "integration of IT applications with operational technologies," and "speed and cost of regulatory compliance adaptation" as their most pressing IT objectives. Survey results also confirmed that European utilities' IT objectives for the next 12 months are seamlessly aligned with their leading business initiative (regulatory compliance) and key challenge (integrating disparate applications).
- Security remains the top investment priority for European utilities, with the majority of spending going on maintenance and running of existing systems, but with spending also being funneled into enhancements and upgrades and the deployment of replacement systems. Taking a closer look at security solutions, endpoint security and network securities will be the main investment areas for European utilities.
- European utilities are demonstrating a propensity toward line-of-business IT solution investments, specifically for network automation and control, customer care, and plant maintenance, which have a significant margin over the pack. Additionally, European utilities identified meter data management as the line-of-business IT solution they would most be investing in for first time, as indicated by over 21% of survey respondents’’.
