This trend, according to Gartner, is driven by a new category of buyers outside of traditional tech organisations, who are occupying a larger share of the overall IT products and services market.
Today, total business-led IT spend averages up to 36% of the total formal IT budget, and tech encroachment into all business areas, and among consumers, is creating demand for products and services outside of IT departments, with needs not always fitting neatly into offerings from traditional providers.
This has been compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, which has only expanded the amount and type of use cases technology is needed to fulfil.
In 2023, Gartner anticipates that $30 billion in revenue will be generated by products and services that did not exist pre-pandemic.
In addition, Gartner analysts believe the rapid expansion of cloud services, digital business initiatives and remote services opened the door for new possibilities in integrations and optimisation.
“Digital business is treated as a team sport by CEOs and no longer the sole domain of the IT department,” said Rajesh Kandaswamy, distinguished research vice-president at Gartner.
“Growth in digital data, low-code development tools and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted development are among the many factors that enable the democratisation of technology development beyond IT professionals.”
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Increasing competition with non-technology providers
Gartner has also predicted that over a third of tech providers will compete with non-technology providers by 2024.
COVID-19 has also reduced barriers for those outside of IT to create technology-based solutions by providing an entry point for anyone who was able to serve pandemic-induced needs.
These entrants include non-technology professions within enterprises – or “business technologists” – citizen developers, data scientists and AI systems that generate software.
Tech providers are now finding themselves increasingly entering markets related to, or in competition with, non-technology providers, including innovative firms in financial services and retail.
The latter is creating IT-driven solutions more frequently and with more ambition, as more enterprises continue their digital transformation efforts.
Kandaswamy continued: “The availability of business technologists provides new sources of innovation and the ability to get work done.
“Thus, technology and service providers will need to extend their sourcing of ideas and technology development into new communities, whether they are based on citizen development, their own customer communities or other sources.”
