People will have to learn to do “more with less” next year as COVID-19 weighs heavy on their IT budgets, according to a new report from analyst outfit Forrester.
Forrester VP and principal analyst Thomas Husson claims that end users will want to invest in technology next year to help them endure the COVID-19 crisis, but lack the budgets.
He thinks that this will put more pressure on IT suppliers.
“Companies will have to do more with less meaning they will have to make some cuts and reprioritise some of their investments. And clearly, we see what is happening is that they are more demanding than ever”, Husson said.
“Into next year they are likely to feel more frustrated because they will have to deal with lower purchasing power, and some of them will unfortunately face unemployment.
“We expect more companies to go bankrupt and so it will create a lot of tension.”
Husson’s advice is for companies to spend on technologies that enable them to better understand their customers.
And a key trend for 2021 will be a move towards automating more “mundane” administrative processes within businesses so they can scale faster.
Europe is lagging behind Asia Pacific and the US in investing in tools such as digital decision platforms, robotic process automation and digital process automation.
European governments are writing policy to try and stem a rise in unemployment due to COVID-19, which will likely look to discourage businesses from adopting automation solutions, Husson said.
“The EU recovery programmes are focused on avoiding rising unemployment during the pandemic. And therefore, these recovery funds are bound to try and keep workforces untouched, instead of shifting it to automation.”
More broadly, Forrester says that 2021 will not see a plethora of net new purchasing behaviours but rather an exacerbation of existing trends.
“We expect that in 2021, 30 percent of companies will invest more in cloud automation, security and mobility”, Husson said.
“And this will increase the gap between those who do, and those who don’t, have some sort of a technology debt, where they’re not necessarily making the most of current technologies.”
