DIGITAL ECONOMY · FOCUS
Enterprise software: survey quantifies the burden of unwanted changes
A survey commissioned by Origina attributes an average of 28% of the surveyed companies’ software budgets to unwanted changes. Covered by Ars Technica, these findings describe the perceptions of large US and UK companies, with the sponsor’s commercial interest needing to be taken into account.
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The companies surveyed reportedly spend an average of 28% of their software budgets on unwanted upgrades, migrations and licensing changes. This finding comes from a survey commissioned by Origina and covered by Ars Technica. It describes a sample of large companies without establishing an average for the entire market.
Censuswide surveyed 2,018 chief information officers and senior IT executives in the United States and the United Kingdom. Their companies had at least 10,000 employees.
A very large majority of respondents say their organization paid for a vendor-requested change that it believed at the time could reduce performance, reliability or business value. This reflects an assessment at the time of the decision, rather than a measurement demonstrating an actual deterioration after each change.
The responses also highlight dependence on vendors: 76% consider their bargaining power very limited, and 80% believe that leaving major vendors would cause significant disruption.
The scope of these findings must be considered in light of the sponsor. Origina sells software maintenance, and its report presents independent maintenance as a possible response. The survey therefore sheds light on a problem reported by IT leaders while also serving an explicit commercial positioning strategy.