Companies cutting IT investment when they need it most, warns PwC report

Many Irish companies plan to invest less in their IT infrastructure over coming years when they should be doing the opposite to cope with more staff working from home, PwC has warned.

The firm carried out a survey of chief information officers across Europe, including Ireland, that showed more than a third of companies plan to cut IT investment beginning this year. Meanwhile, almost 90 per cent of companies had instituted some form of working-from-home arrangement.

Of the 36 per cent of Irish respondents who told PwC they were planning to cut IT investment, more than three-quarters said it would be by at least 20 per cent. The accounting and consulting firm said this chimes with a recent survey it carried out of chief financial officers, 37 per cent of whom were planning to cut digital budgets.

Digital investment

"More investment in digital is needed not less," said Robert Byrne, a partner in PwC Ireland's technology consultancy. "With the move to remote working and the surge in online, companies who do not invest will be at a competitive disadvantage."

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PwC said its research had also found that most companies that had implemented working-from-home were satisfied with how their technology had performed, with 86 per cent of Irish respondents saying their IT system had performed good or better than before.

PwC said it was urging companies to “shift the focus from survival mode to accelerating real digital transformation” to deal with issues such as cybersecurity and also enhanced levels of e-commerce in a post-virus world.