Summary
Energy companies across the globe are continuously facing major issues relating to price fluctuations and a decline in demand for crude oil, due to the precarious global economic scenario. However, with the growth in population and improvement in living standards, the demand for energy is expected to witness an upward trend. The demand for energy is further fuelled by the development of urban infrastructures and the migration of people from rural to urban areas. Kables survey shows that energy companies are expected to make a substantial investment in ICT in 2015, owing to the increasing need for an intelligent electronic networking of all the components of the energy system.
Key Findings
Kables survey shows that enterprises in the energy sector are expected to make reasonable investments in ICT in order to reduce operational costs, increase efficiency, and support intelligent load management while simultaneously adhering to environment protection goals.
The survey illustrates that energy companies are primarily investing in the core domains of software and hardware, owing to the increasing need to boost productivity and mitigate costs by implementing smart grid technology.
Moreover, the hardware budget of energy companies is primarily dominated by network and communications equipment and clients, while software licenses and SaaS (software as a service) led the software budget of energy companies.
Synopsis
ICT investment trends in energy presents the findings from a survey of 130 energy companies regarding their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) investment trends. The survey investigates how energy companies currently allocate their ICT budgets across the core areas of enterprise ICT expenditure: hardware, software, IT services, communications, and consulting.
The report illustrates the core technologies that energy companies are investing in, including enterprise applications, business intelligence, and mobility. The survey also highlights the approach to purchasing technology adopted by energy companies. Through Kables survey, the report aims to provide a better insight to ICT vendors and service providers when pitching their solutions to energy companies. The report focuses on energy companies ICT expenditure trends for specific business areas and technologies, identifying the top three IT projects, and understanding the business challenges faced by organizations.
In particular, it provides an in-depth analysis of the following:
How ICT budgets are set to change in 2015 in terms of their overall size
Allocation across the core elements of IT spend, including hardware, software, services, communications, and consulting
Distribution of ICT money in areas such as the networks, applications, service desk, and data centers
Which ICT functions energy companies are interested in outsourcing
Energy companies investment priorities based on their budget allocations across core technology categories such as enterprise applications, business intelligence, and mobility
Factors that are influencing energy companies investments in each technology category
How energy companies IT budgets are currently allocated across various segments within a technology category
Energy companies distribution of their ICT budget across various segments within a technology category
Vendor satisfaction ratings for various core and advanced technology categories
Insight into energy companies preferred buying approaches
Business and IT objectives that energy companies are looking to achieve through their IT investment strategies
Factors that are influencing energy companies decisions to select an ICT provider
Reasons To Buy
Understand how the energy companies ICT landscape is set to change in 2015 to prioritize your target market
Comprehend how ICT money are being allocated by energy companies in specific geographies and size bands to improve your market penetration
Make effective business decisions by recognizing the opportunities within each of the core areas of ICT spend (hardware, software, IT services, telecommunications, and consulting)
Realign your sales initiatives by understanding the current strategic objectives of energy companies
Enhance your market segmentation with the included, detailed breakdown of opportunities within selected technology categories (enterprise applications, business intelligence, and mobility)
Prioritize your focus areas by understanding which factors are influencing energy companies decisions when selecting an ICT provider
Understand the changes in customers priorities and identify the business and IT objectives that energy companies are looking to achieve through their ICT investment strategies
Table Of Contents
1 Trends in ICT budgets
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Survey demographics
1.3 ICT budget changes
1.4 ICT budget allocation by core technology area
1.4.1 Hardware budget breakdown
1.4.2 Software budget breakdowns
1.4.3 Third party IT services expenditure
1.4.4 Cloud computing budget
1.5 ICT budget allocation by function
1.6 Outsourced IT functions
2 ICT investment priorities and vendor satisfaction
2.1 Introduction
2.1.1 Enterprise applications
2.1.2 Business intelligence
2.1.3 Mobility
3 ICT procurement trends
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Business objectives and IT objectives influencing IT investment strategy
3.3 ICT provider selection
4 Sector-specific trends
4.1 Introduction
4.2 IT expenditure plans for specific technology areas
4.3 Technology areas receiving the largest investments
4.4 Business challenges
5 Summary
5.1 Enterprises in the energy sector are optimistic about their ICT investments in 2015
6 Appendix
6.1 Definitions
6.2 Further reading
6.3 Contact the authors
List Of Tables
N/A
List Of Figures
Figure 1: Energy companies - ICT survey geographic breakdown
Figure 2: Energy companies - ICT survey breakdown by size band (number of employees)
Figure 3: Recent and expected ICT budget changes among energy companies
Figure 4: Energy companies' (external) ICT budget allocation, 2014 and 2015
Figure 5: Energy companies' average hardware budget allocation
Figure 6: Average allocation of software budgets in energy companies
Figure 7: Energy companies' average IT services budget allocation
Figure 8: Energy companies' average cloud computing budget allocation by technology
Figure 9: Energy companies' average cloud computing budget allocation by implementation type
Figure 10: Energy companies' ICT budget allocation by function, 2014 and 2015
Figure 11: Outsourced IT functions - energy companies' current and future outsourcing priorities
Figure 12: Enterprise applications - energy companies' current and future investment priorities
Figure 13: Enterprise applications - selected primary provider and vendor satisfaction among energy companies
Figure 14: Business intelligence - energy companies' current and future investment priorities
Figure 15: Business intelligence - selected primary provider and vendor satisfaction among energy companies
Figure 16: Mobility - energy companies' current and future investment priorities
Figure 17: Mobility - selected primary provider and vendor satisfaction among energy companies
Figure 18: Business objectives and IT objectives which influence energy companies' IT investment strategy
Figure 19: Factors influencing energy companies' decision to choose an ICT provider
Figure 20: IT expenditure plans in 2015 compared to 2014, for specific technology areas within energy companies
Figure 21: Top three IT projects in 2015 for energy companies
Figure 22: Importance of the following business challenges for energy companies
