What Determines IT Spending Priorities?

By Hoon S. CHA, David E. Pingry And Matt E. Thatcher

After reading this article I'm surprised to learn that security is ranked as such a low priority in many businesses. "Security ranks as the lowest planned IT expenditure." I would have thought that security was quite a high priority for any business given the disastrous consequences associated with security failures.

"The highest IT spending priorities of the respondents are in the areas of administration and production and distribution." Of course survey data changes due to  business factors such as; industry type, firm size, and perceptions of the impact of past IT investments. Surveys show that service firms are more likely to rank IT spending in support of R&D and security as their largest priority. In comparison, small firms are more likely to rank IT spending in support of security as their lowest priority.

I can understand why larger firms would rank security as a high priority, they have more to lose if something were to happen. However, I am surprised to learn that small businesses rank security as such a low priority. Surely it shouldn't matter how big or small the company is, security should always be a high priority.

I feel that having security at the bottom of your list of priorities is a bad idea no matter what size the business is.

~ Luisa Zigliani