[January 15, 2013]

Gartner Says Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Significantly Influenced $1.1 Trillion of Worldwide Enterprise IT Spend in 2012

Fifty percent of enterprise architecture (EA) practitioners have a significant impact on enterprise IT budget activities and decisions, according to a recent survey by Gartner (News - Alert), Inc. A July 2012 Gartner survey of EA practitioners found that half of EA practitioners have an influence over their organization's IT budget allocation that is either "final decision maker" or "great deal of influence."

Based on the EA survey results from Gartner events in North America and Europe, analysts estimate that EA practitioners have a "final decision-making" influence on $331 billion in worldwide enterprise IT spend and a "great deal of influence" on $774 billion in worldwide enterprise IT spending. Overall, EA practitioners have an influence that is either "final decision maker" or "great deal of influence" on $1.1 trillion in worldwide enterprise IT spending.

"Overwhelmingly we find EA practitioners focused on delivering on business value and strategic transformation," said Philip Allega, managing vice president at Gartner. "Gone are the days of just 'doing EA' with little value or impact. Sixty-eight percent of organizations surveyed stated that they are focusing their EA program on aligning business and IT strategies, delivering strategic business and IT value, or enabling major business transformation."

Gartner is leading the way in defining and mastering a radical new approach to EA, which is business outcome-driven EA. Leading EA practitioners are focused on creating diagnostic deliverables to help business and IT leaders respond to business and technology disruptions.

"This new generation of EA practitioners offers technology and service providers (TSPs) with an opportunity as well as a threat," said Mr. Allega. "Technology and service providers should develop targeted marketing to this new generation of EA practitioner as they have a significant influence on their organization buying decisions. Those that fail to understand the priorities, strategic focus and impact of EA practitioners will jeopardize their ability to sell into an organization."

Gartner has identified the impact of EA trends on IT purchasing decisions, and has the following advice and recommendations to help TSPs target this audience more effectively:

In organizations supporting EA as strategic, and as collaborative between business leaders and IT, TSPs will increasingly find EA practitioners influencing IT spend.

EA practitioners have a high degree of influence over emerging technology purchases, with 52 percent of the EA practitioners surveyed reporting directly to a CIO or CTO. They are also "very involved" in integration consulting services (64 percent) and business applications (52 percent). As EA practitioners continue to focus on integrating and aligning with business priorities and actively working with business leaders, their degree of influence on business intelligence tools, workplace tools and business applications will likely increase as well.

Organizations starting, restarting or renewing their EA efforts present an opportunity for providers to market to and influence a new generation of EA practitioners.

The survey revealed that 77 percent of respondents were either restarting or renewing EA efforts (18 percent), initiating EA for the first time (34 percent) or taking EA effort to the next level (25 percent). In organizations starting EA for the first time, EA practitioners have a significant influence on IT budget decisions, but significantly less have decision-making authority. These new and restarting organizations present an opportunity for TSPs to target a new generation of EA practitioners.

As organizations become more mature in supporting EA, they will have a greater degree of influence on IT budget allocations to products and services.

Many organizations begin their EA journey by focusing inside the IT organization on system consolidation, standardization and cost management. As they mature, this evolves into looking more closely at the "alignment" between the business strategy and IT strategy. From here the EA program evolves further to become "business outcome-oriented," such that in a mature EA program, other areas of decision making are guided and influenced by business outcome-driven EA.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report, "EA Practitioners Have Significant Influence on $1.1 Trillion (News - Alert) in Enterprise IT Spend." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=2286216.

Gartner analysts will discuss more about this revolutionary approach to EA at the Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit 2013, taking place May 14-15 in London and May 22-23 in National Harbor, MD. For further information about the Summit in London, please visit www.gartner.com/eu/ea. For further information about the Summit in Maryland, please visit www.gartner.com/us/ea. Media can register to attend the London Summit by contacting laurence.goasduff@gartner.com. Media can register for the U.S. Summit by contacting janessa.rivera@gartner.com. Additional information from the event will be shared on Twitter (News - Alert) at http://twitter.com/Gartner_inc and using #GartnerEA.

About Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit 2013

Business outcome-driven EA can put your organization ahead of competitors, drive strategic business value and change, increase your impact and effectiveness, and engage key decision makers. The Summit can help organizations navigate this revolutionary approach, add new perspective and change the way organizations deliver value.

More-detailed analysis on the business outcome-driven EA will be presented in two webinars. During these webinars, Gartner analysts will outline the strategies that are key to making EA relevant to business leaders. The "Best and Worst Practices in Enterprise & Application Architecture" webinar will be hosted by Gartner on January 17 at 9 a.m. EST. To register for this complimentary webinar, please visit http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt open=512&objID=202&mode=2&PageID=5553&ref=webinar-rss&resId=2271818&srcId=1-2994690285. The webinar "Business Architecture Bridging Strategy and Execution" will be hosted by Gartner on February 26 at 10 a.m. EST. To register for this webinar, please visit http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt open=512&objID=202&mode=2&PageID=5553&resId=2301018&ref=Webinar-Calendar

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner in 12,400 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and has 5,300 associates, including 1,390 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

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