First Annual Telarus Tech Trends Report Finds AI at Center Stage, Illuminates Top Emerging Technology Growth Areas for IT Business Leaders
Exclusive findings from a Telarus-commissioned study of leading global digital CXOs and technology advisors reveal channel-specific insights to guide growth in 2024 and beyond.
October 19, 2023 – Sandy, UT – Telarus, a leading technology services distributor (TSD), today announced new findings to help technology advisors navigate digital innovation opportunities for their customers as they shape their selling strategies for the upcoming year. In this inaugural report, technology advisors can explore the most relevant trends influencing top digital CXOs’ current and future IT purchasing decisions and uncover ways to enhance their customers’ capabilities with cutting-edge solutions.
Key Takeaways
1. Only 6% of CXOs rank cost-cutting as one of their top business issues driving technology buying decisions.
Despite post-pandemic economic turbulence, leading CXOs are not holding back investments in innovation to meet the needs of remote workers and level up customer experience. They have learned from previous down cycles that stalling technology initiatives will make it more challenging to catch up with competitors.
“The findings in this report illuminate many of the most vital trends in IT this year. The de-emphasis on cost-cutting represents a major shift from January and shows a resurgence of economic confidence,” said Dion Hinchcliffe, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. “Consequently, as IT decision-makers prioritize digital innovation, cybersecurity, and AI over the next few years, our survey data shows that most IT buyers today want and need expert advisory identifying and managing the right solutions in these uncharted areas for their businesses.”
2. AI (non-generative and generative), cloud, and cybersecurity top future IT spending.
While AI experimentation currently represents a small portion of overall IT spending, over the next five years, CXOs envision the evolution of AI impacting virtually all areas of an organization. They also plan on widespread next-gen cybersecurity implementation to protect virtualized and AI-powered environments. Technology advisors ranked cybersecurity (80%), cloud (56%), and AI-enabled tech (46%) as the top areas they are seeing an increased interest among their customers.
3. IT decision-makers have yet to unleash the full potential of the cloud.
According to Constellation Research, cloud technology investments have focused on customer-facing apps, with 70% of back-office IT workloads still on-premises. However, almost half of CXO respondents plan to shift legacy technologies to cloud-native within the next two to five years to create more scalable, secure, and cost-effective infrastructure tailored to today’s ubiquitous hybrid work models.
4. IT executives are hungry for trusted advice but significantly underutilize the channel.
Nearly half of CXOs surveyed allocate 25% or less of their spending to the channel or consultancies. However, they are highly open to assistance in increasingly complex IT procurement and purchasing processes.
“The results reinforce that while companies still need traditional technology to meet certain business goals, they know they must evolve if they’re going to stay competitive,” said Adam Edwards, CEO of Telarus. “Emerging technologies are complex and advancing so quickly. With a breadth of best-in-class suppliers and subject matter experts at their disposal, independent technology advisors are in an excellent position to be a trusted resource to help companies of all sizes and industries mitigate risk and thrive in the new digital era.”
The report was commissioned by Telarus and conducted by two independent research firms. Constellation Research surveyed its elite Business Transformation 150 annual inductees of top global digital CXOs (such as CIOs, CDOs, and CMOs). Roughly two-thirds of the nearly 100 respondents are headquartered in the U.S., with the remainder across EMEA, Canada, and APAC. Redpoint Research surveyed over 500 respondents from Telarus’ database of multi-industry technology advisors serving global SMB, mid-market, and enterprise companies. Both studies were administered in June 2023. To learn about the research findings, access the 2023 Telarus Tech Trends Report here.
Media Contact:
Nick Ochoa
pr@telarus.com
About Telarus
Telarus is a leading global technology services distributor with a singular focus on accelerating technology advisor success. For over 20 years, Telarus has provided comprehensive services, solutions, and tools to support our partner community as they pursue their business objectives.