Irish companies and the public sector will invest more than €350m in software in 2007, according to a survey published by SAS Ireland.
The survey, conducted by iReach, revealed that €182m of this will be invested in infrastructural software, with €90m being spent on security software.
The survey polled more than 100 companies and public sector organisations.
It found that the Government and semi-state bodies will invest €129m in IT in 2007 and of this €24m (18pc) will go on security software. Banking and financial services companies will invest €88m on software with €21m (20pc) going on security, and manufacturing industries will spend €69m on software with €16.5m (over 26pc) earmarked for security applications.
The research findings also showed that business intelligence (BI) is now seen and used as a core software asset by all sectors, said SAS Ireland, with 88pc of total respondents stating they utilised BI in their organisations.
The financial services sector showed the greatest interest in BI tools, with over two thirds of respondents in this sector employing BI across all functions of its business: finance, sales, marketing and operations.
Just under 80pc of companies in the hospitality, travel and leisure sectors used BI, mostly for operational and integration purposes.
“While 88pc of all those surveyed stated they used BI, it is being employed on a piecemeal basis rather than being strategically integrated across all the operations — a seriously missed opportunity,” said Michael Kearney, country manager, SAS Ireland. “Organisations should sweat their BI functions to give them the information they need to achieve better performance and return on investment from their strategies.
“In my view this survey highlights a potentially missed opportunity for organisations to utilise the information they have and use it to its best to assist them make better business and strategic decision.”
By Niall Byrne
