Gartner has revealed in a recent survey that 60% of Australia and New Zealand CIOs have no interest in blockchain technology.
Instead, the 2021 Gartner CIO Agenda survey revealed business intelligence and data analytics is on top of the list when it comes to technology priorities for Australian and New Zealand CIOs next year. This was followed by artificial intelligence and machine learning and investments for the digital workplace.
For two-thirds of the same group of CIOs, they expect investment in technology will increase in 2021, as budgets are expected to grow 1.9% on average.
Gartner added the same survey indicated that 60% of ANZ respondents believe the CIO and CEO relationship strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 70% reporting there was increased engagement with their CEO, especially ad hoc, informal interactions during the crisis.
At the same time, Gartner has forecast enterprise IT spending across all sectors in Australia will grow 3.6% and reach a total value of around AU$96 billion in 2021.
The prediction would be an uplift from an expected 2.8% decline in enterprise IT spending in 2020, Gartner said.
Breaking it down by sector, Gartner believes the banking and securities sector will be the biggest spender next year, predicting it will splash out just over AU$19 billion on enterprise IT.
This will be followed by the communications, media, and services sector at AU$18.5 billion, manufacturing and resources industry is predicted to spend AU$16 billion, followed by government at AU$13 billion.
The only sector that is expected to spend less next year than what it did on enterprise tech in 2020 is the utilities sector.
See also: IT budgeting: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic)
Gartner also noted that given the transportation sector was negatively impacted by COVID-19 — where airlines have been grounded and work from home policies have hit commuter revenues on public transport — it has to cut back in IT spending by 15.5% in 2020. Despite this, the transportation sector is expected to ramp up its spending again by 10.4% next year.
But it was not the only sector to cut back spending in 2020. The resources and manufacturing industry also took a step back, with IT spending declining by 11.6% in 2020.
Meanwhile, tech spending by Australia’s education organisations is forecast to grow 8.6% to more than $3 billion in 2021. Gartner has attributed that predicted growth to necessity for the sector to invest in laptops, tablets, communication, and collaboration technologies to support online learning.
“Most primary, secondary, and tertiary education institutions are offering either full online learning support or blended learning (a combination of on-campus and online instructions),” Gartner said.
“In addition to learner investment needs, education institutions are also investing in COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. Many research institutions as well as public health schools are contributing to COVID-19 related research and development worldwide.”