A third of businesses plan to increase IT spending despite the pandemic

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic isn't having too much of a negative impact on IT spending, a new study suggests, with a third of businesses planning to increase their investment in technology.

According to research from global investment bank GCA Altium, which analysed data from technology research company 451 Research, a third of companies are planning to increase their spending on IT and technology despite the ongoing COVID pandemic.

The study also found close to half (43%) of businesses are committed to investing in communication and collaborative technologies such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack as their employees continue to work from home, with some companies announcing an extension of their remote working policies.

A further 37% are planning to increase their spending on mobile devices and servers, while a fifth of businesses surveyed said they planned to invest in network and bandwidth improvements.

Commenting on the findings, GCA Altium managing director James Craven said that “with innovation key in times of stress, technology has remained a key area for companies across the world during the COVID-19 crisis”.

“With most businesses operating new models from home, spending on new tech platforms has been crucial to retaining productivity and, in some cases, staying afloat," he said. "While deal volumes and values have been initially hit as the world looks at retaining stability, pockets of M&A have continued for resilient businesses."

Craven also added that, in the next few months, he expects “to see a greater number of businesses focus their sights on tech investments (...), with private equity in particular building up reserves of dry powder to be released as we return to normal”.

GCA Altium’s research comes as welcome news, following months of uncertainty about how the coronavirus crisis would impact the tech sector. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, technology research firm International Data Corp (IDC) dropped its IT spending forecast from a 4% growth only to 1%, expecting the sector to lose $200 billion in 2020.

In other good news, last week it was revealed that, according to data gathered by LearnBonds, 68% of major public and private organizations plan to increase their cyber security spending in response to the coronavirus pandemic.