Vendors Should Push SMBs To Financially Justify Their IT Investments

Financially justifying IT projects has long been a way of life for enterprise IT shops. But small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), especially the latter (100 to 999 employees), use this tool as well. Relative to those that do not, SMBs that value providing a business case to justify IT investments spent more on new IT investments (29% of IT budget versus 19%) and their IT shops did better at supporting business goals (81% versus 67% reported supporting improvements in workforce productivity). The more successful IT projects and higher rates of new investment spending that characterize SMBs that justify their investments with a business case can also benefit vendors and their channel partners. Vendors can promote this practice by ensuring that SMBs and channel partners have easy access to a variety of business case-building tools and educating channel partners in how to have a "business-case" conversation with non-IT senior executives.