This guide is part of a series designed to help financial directors meet the challenges of running a successful and efficient business.

In this whitepaper, we consider how businesses and IT suppliers are responding to the current challenging market conditions. We look at the steps which can be taken to maximise the value of your existing investment and areas where extending the
capabilities of your software could help to ‘recession proof’ your business.

The context: the current purchasing landscape

Few sectors are immune from the impact of the current downturn. With the entire global economy adversely affected, businesses are subjecting proposals for IT investment to even closer scrutiny than usual. In particular, they are assessing the likelihood of the
investment delivering sustainable results.

As the financial situation has worsened over the past few months, IT purchasing criteria has changed. A distinct pattern has emerged:

‘nice to have’ is a thing of the past; only ‘must have’ proposals stand any chance of getting off the starting blocks. More than ever, businesses are rightly demanding that any investment must add value in one of two ways - and preferably both, by...

• Saving money by increasing efficiency and controlling costs
• Earning money by generating revenue and creating new revenue streams

With this in mind, if the potential payback can be illustrated and proved, businesses are pressing ahead with their IT spending plans. Targeted, strategic investment can be the clue to survival in helping organisations to gain market share over their competitors.

Continue reading Achieving and sustaining optimum return on your IT investment