ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- CEB (NYSE: CEB) the leading member-based advisory company, today released findings from its 2015 IT budget and benchmark survey that indicate CIOs expect budgets to increase 3.3 percent, the biggest jump since the financial crisis of 2008. As companies push to enhance the customer experience, they will devote 17 percent of their IT project spending to digital channels and technologies that touch the customer, such as mobile applications. Despite the overall increase, CAPEX will remain flat.

To free up additional money to support business demands for innovation and enhanced digital channels, CIOs have worked hard to reduce maintenance spend - 'or keeping the lights on' - from 63 to 57 percent of the total IT budget over the past three years. The reduction comes from activities such as retiring legacy systems, investing in process discipline, and more effective sourcing.

As many emerging digitization opportunities are fast-changing and unpredictable, the majority of IT organizations now maintain a flexible budgeting process throughout the year. Leading CIOs are reallocating as much as 30 percent of their IT budget to support unplanned business needs and fund fast-developing roles such as those dedicated to improving the user experience.

Andrew Horne, managing director at CEB said, "Today, nearly 75 percent of a company's priorities hinge on technology - whether that's using data to enhance a product or service, or adopting a new digital business model - meaning IT will work more closely than ever with functional leaders to drive corporate performance. In 2015 CIOs will focus on making IT quicker to adapt to rapidly changing digitization opportunities, and prioritizing investment in improving the digital customer experience."

Other findings from the 2015 IT Budget Benchmark Survey include:


    --  Substantial IT spending occurring outside of corporate IT: Consistent
        with last year, Finance, HR, Marketing, and Operations are the functions
        outside IT that will allocate the largest percentage of their budgets to
        technology;
    --  Cloud investments nearing universal: Ninety-one percent of IT
        organizations are allocating spending to the cloud. The depth of
        deployment has also increased, with more companies allocating at least
        six percent of spending to cloud solutions;
    --  Investment in mobile applications now widespread: Eighty-one percent of
        organizations invested in mobile applications development in 2014, but
        spending remains low at one percent of the total IT budget;
    --  Majority of CIOs' roles extend beyond IT: Nearly 60% of CIOs now own at
        least one non-IT functional area such as procurement or strategy; and
    --  Staff growth projections modest:  IT headcount is projected to grow by
        less than one percent.

To learn more about CEB's 2015 IT budget benchmark survey and how companies are using this information to influence investments visit, CEB Information Technology.

About CEB
 CEB, the leading member-based advisory company, equips more than 10,000 organizations around the globe with insights, tools and actionable solutions to transform enterprise performance. By combining advanced research and analytics with best practices from member companies, CEB helps leaders realize outsized returns by more effectively managing talent, information, customers and risk. Member companies include approximately 85% of the Fortune 500, half the Dow Jones Asian Titans, and nearly 85% of the FTSE 100. More at cebglobal.com.

SOURCE CEB