SelectHub, a technology selection management (TSM) software provider, released results of their IT buyer survey conducted with over 10,000 software buyers and IT sourcing professionals.

The report, investigating how fears over rising economic volatility might affect IT purchasing roadmaps, asks IT professionals what software they’re planning to buy, and about key frustrations in their software selection and purchasing processes. The SelectHub report also reveals the hottest software categories for business and what resources IT buyers are using for their software research.

Analyst firm Gartner reported a decrease of 3.5% in worldwide IT spending last year. SelectHub’s Software Buyer Survey shows that this belt-tightening will continue and will affect certain industries more than others: while financial services and healthcare companies are planning an active year with an average of 11 and 10 software purchases respectively, 47% of IT buyers in the Oil and Gas sector and 22% in the manufacturing sector have been asked to either freeze or shrink IT budget.

With 90% of survey respondents citing frustration with their IT selection process, the report uncovers a common theme from responses to the question, “what is the single most frustrating part of the software selection, sourcing and procurement process expected this year?” The majority of complaints were split between four responses: disorganized requirements gathering (38.4%), Getting stakeholders to agree on objectives (19.6%), building a reliable shortlist of vendors (17.3%), and managing RFIs and RFPs and gathering vendor responses (21.6%).

“As expected, budgetary challenges are pervasive this year. But deep-rooted frustration with IT selection and sourcing practices clearly indicates a need for improvement in the technology decision-making process within most organizations” said Ram Karan, VP for Customer Success at SelectHub.

The survey methodology primarily comprised of a questionnaire sent to the target audience via email, with a follow-up phone conversation when further clarification was required. The corresponding report was then compiled by SelectHub’s analyst team.

The survey audience was represented across a key mix of software buyers including CIO/CTOs (7%), IT Sourcing/Procurement specialists (59%), IT Architects/Analysts (22%) and functional business managers across Marketing, Sales, Finance and HR (12%). Survey respondents came from a range of industries (including Manufacturing, Energy, Financial Services and Retail) as well company sizes from SMBs to large enterprises.

The full analysis and report is available as a free download here.

About SelectHub
SelectHub is a cloud-based technology selection management (TSM) software platform helping streamline software selection and IT sourcing to be more agile and collaborative. The platform supports a comprehensive set of evaluation stages from requirements gathering to vendor shortlisting, managing demos and user trials, RFI/RFPs and contract negotiation. SelectHub customers include Hunter Douglas, Advanced Energy, QEP Resources and the State of Colorado. To learn more, please visit https://selecthub.com.