The majority of European organisations that have cut cost from IT operations are reinvesting those funds into strategic IT projects, according to a survey backed by business service management tools vendor BMC.

The survey of 300 European IT decision makers found that 60% were reinvesting their cost savings strategically.

According to Dr Alexander Grous, from the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, the remaining 40% face an ‘innovation deficit’ in future by failing to invest in IT in the long term.

“The lesson we can draw from the past is that companies cannot simply save their way back to recovery,” said Grous.

“Organizations that recover best are those investing in areas of the business that can deliver long-term returns – areas such as IT.” However, overall IT investment at the surveyed companies had declined 11% on average.