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Target Your 2024 Technology Planning On Growth | Forrester

Customer Experiences

Amidst an economic landscape necessitating prudence, businesses must diligently explore avenues for expansion. Technology leaders must empower their teams to propel growth through ongoing innovation, enhanced experiences, and the cultivation of competitive edges.

Strategic allocations toward technological capacities will unveil fresh possibilities and foster enduring growth amidst today’s ever-evolving environment. This planning resource is tailored to assist technology executives in making informed choices to facilitate, cultivate, and magnify growth in 2024 and beyond.

Reinvigorate Technology’s Contribution to Your Company’s Growth Strategy

Similar to the landscape in 2023, the current market is characterized by uncertainty as the norm rather than the exception. While market volatility has steadily declined over the past year, signaled by a resilient job market and robust consumer spending, challenging indicators persist across most sectors.

Policymakers grapple with persistently high inflation rates, and credit spreads continue to rise, indicating mounting systemic market risks and the potential onset of a broader economic downturn later in the year.

Despite this backdrop of uncertainty, Forrester’s Budget Planning Survey for 2023 revealed that 81% of US enterprise technology decision-makers anticipate an increase in their organizations’ technology investments over the next 12 months.

Moreover, 45% of technology decision-makers in data-related functions at US enterprises expect budgets for AI capabilities to rise by 5% or more within the same period. This presents a significant opportunity for technology executives to translate these investment allocations into tangible company growth.

Benchmark Your Budget for Sustainable Growth

As we transition into 2024, the focus shifts towards leveraging technology decisions made in the past to drive future business expansion. Half of US enterprise technology decision-makers anticipate a budget increase of 5% or more over the next 12 months, laying the groundwork for future growth initiatives.

These investments are poised to extend customer boundaries, enhance operational scope and scale, and formulate strategies to embrace emerging technologies more rapidly. Organizations can align their budgets with customer-centric goals and enhance their competitive positioning by prioritizing investments based on their potential business impact.

Strategic Allocation of Budgets in 2024

Budget allocations in 2024 will revolve around three primary categories:

  1. Application and software development: Enhancing new product and service offerings. Companies are expected to allocate 52% of their IT spending to applications, focusing on optimizing capabilities, delivering superior products and services, and improving customer touchpoints. Investments will target automation of customer interactions to minimize errors, transition towards product portfolios, and ensure end-to-end visibility of development processes.
  2. Infrastructure modernization: Laying the groundwork for future growth. Approximately 39% of IT budgets will be allocated to infrastructure upgrades, aimed at optimizing costs and capitalizing on growth opportunities. Investments will focus on standardizing core systems, evaluating and modernizing technology platforms, and enhancing scalability and flexibility.
  3. Management spend: Investing in human resources to drive innovation. Organizations will allocate approximately 9% of their IT budget towards management services, aimed at optimizing investments and fostering workforce innovation. Investments will prioritize capability development, fostering collaboration, and incentivizing outcome-based performance.

Planning Guide 2024: Technology Executives | DMC

Focus On The Tech That Generates Growth

A forward-looking tech strategy empowers businesses to swiftly adapt, infuse emotion and engagement into customer experiences, and consistently deliver on brand promises and visions.

According to Forrester’s 2023 findings, 43% of US enterprise technology decision-makers in digital or digital strategy roles actively engage in refining or reimagining their business models.

To showcase the tangible business value of technology in 2024, concentrate investments on intertwining customer, employee, and partner journeys to fuel growth. Here’s how:

Optimize the Customer Experience with Technology

Harness technology to enhance the customer experience, catering to evolving needs effectively. With 51% of US enterprise technology decision-makers in digital or digital strategy roles actively managing customer-facing websites or apps, investments should prioritize streamlining customer relationship systems, modernizing data analytics, and personalizing marketing efforts to deliver tailored experiences.

According to Forrester’s Priorities Survey for 2023, 88% of global business and technology professionals from future-fit enterprises anticipate increased investments in customer management techs like ERP, call center, and CRM over the next year, underscoring the importance of exceptional customer service and fostering long-term relationships.

Utilize AI to Empower Employees and Boost Productivity

Leverage AI to automate processes, expand operational capacity, and enhance productivity. In Forrester’s Budget Planning Survey for 2023, 71% of US enterprise technology decision-makers anticipated increased investments in operations technology over the next year.

To capitalize on this trend, focus on advancing software capabilities to streamline tasks, reduce manual dependencies, and encourage employee creativity.

Forrester’s 2023 data also indicates that 81% of global business and technology professionals from future-fit organizations expect increased investments in business automation and robotics, highlighting the significance of leveraging AI for efficiency and effectiveness.

Harness Partnerships as a Catalyst for Growth

Position technology as a catalyst for rapid response to market changes by fostering partnerships within and between value networks.

With 64% of US enterprise technology decision-makers in digital or digital strategy roles actively involved in evaluating, selecting, and managing vendors, investments should prioritize leveraging internal and external communities of practice for co-creation opportunities.

Forrester’s Future Fit Survey for 2023 underscores the importance of preparing organizations to drive co-innovation with partners, emphasizing the need to build end-to-end value streams across networks to accelerate value generation in the market.

Optimize Technology Investments by Aligning with Business Objectives

Align technology investments with growth objectives by scaling customer solutions and directing investment towards revenue-generating activities.

Forrester’s 2023 data highlights that US enterprise decision-makers with high alignment across marketing, CX, and digital functions report 2.4 times higher revenue growth than those with no alignment.

To demonstrate market impact, identify key differentiation points along customer journeys and product lifecycles where investments can yield maximum returns.

Experiment to Accelerate Growth Enablement and Creation

Foster innovation by evaluating emerging technologies, refreshing customer experiences, and focusing on the holistic value of the tech portfolio. Future-fit leaders, prioritizing innovation, report 1.6 times faster average annual revenue growth than those who do not.

Rising customer demands and evolving technology landscapes present tech leaders with an opportunity to lead innovation efforts by creatively leveraging emerging tech, staying at the forefront of market trends, and developing differentiated products and services.

Download our Planning Guide 2024 for Technology Executives now, and unlock growth strategies!

The Table of Contents of “Planning Guide 2024: Technology Executives” :

  • Reinvigorate Tech’s Role In Your Company’s Growth Engine
  • Benchmark Your Budget For Growth
    • Application and software reinforce new products and services.
    • Infrastructure modernization is the foundation for future growth.
    • Management spend provides the human resources to innovate.
  • Focus On The Tech That Generates Growth
    • Leverage technology to optimize the customer experience.
    • Use AI to enhance employee autonomy and expand capacity.
    • Activate partnerships to be a force multiplier.
  • Optimize Tech Investment By Focusing On Opportunities With Strong Business Alignment
    • Set a one-to-many AI investment instead of a many-to-many strategy.
    • Increase cloud interoperability instead of adding additional cloud environments.
    • Draw down technical debt so you can reinvest in the future.
  • Experiment To Accelerate How You Enable, Create, And Amplify Growth
    • Enable growth by expanding and extending market frontiers.
    • Create products and services that differentiate customer experience.
    • Emphasize AI to deliver long-term growth.

Number of Pages:

  • 8 pages

Pricing: 

  • Free
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