IT Investments Matter, but Cloud, Analytics Face Resistance

IT investments are considered strategic decisions, particularly among executives who identified their organizations as "pioneers" in new technology adoption, according to a new study conducted by The Harvard Business Review (HBR) on behalf of Verizon Enterprise Solutions. The study, based on a global survey of 652 business and IT executives, found that most of these IT investments were made to become closer to customers, but at the same time, the vast majority said that IT investments have significantly led them to alter their business models. Half the respondents view IT as an investment to spur business innovation. From the perspective of solution providers in the channel, the HBR survey makes it clear that technology matters more than ever and business executives are very involved in making IT decisions. That said, there's still plenty of cultural resistance to emerging technologies, such as analytics and cloud computing. But mobile computing adoption is almost pervasive. The opportunity for the channel is to close the loop between mobile computing, analytics and the cloud.