Are any of your IT budget items recession-proof? Which ones?

Financial Management Cost Optimization IT Strategy & Roadmap

2.3k views2 Upvotes15 Comments

Director in Manufacturing, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

Only software contracts with longer terms that don’t have a declining usage clause. We usually purchase for X number of seats +\- some percentage. If we had a divestiture or layoff large enough then that license budget would be reduced. Other than that nothing in the budget is sacred. We always do Zero based budgets

VP of IT in Software, 201 - 500 employees

IT budget built for high customer value is recession-proof. In more details,

During recession, your customer will be more prudent, and they value more for the service and products which brings more values to them for the same budget, compared to your competitors. And your customers may value more product and service which is quantitively better ROI in their assessment.

For example, provide more automation / easy to use analytics / reporting features, which could help your customer use less resources to maintain the same level of service, and making their decisions easier.

For customer, I mean a general term, for both internal and external customers, dependent on the nature of the company's domain.

Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer & Head of Cybersecurity in IT Services, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

We normally finalize rate contracts for fixed terms and this helps us to be recession proof.

Director of IT in Services (non-Government), 5,001 - 10,000 employees

It is challenging to pinpoint certain budget items that are entirely recession-proof since different industries and firms might experience varying effects from economic downturns. To try to make their IT budget more robust in a recession, firms can adopt the following broad strategies:

Put maintenance and support first. It could be essential to cut back on new initiatives and investments during a recession. Instead, concentrate on preserving and assisting current systems to guarantee their continued effective operation.

Look for chances to cut costs: Consider methods to lower the cost of your IT budget, such as by negotiating better terms with suppliers, combining contracts, or putting in place more effective procedures.

Invest in equipment that can increase production and efficiency.

Director of IT in Insurance (except health), 1,001 - 5,000 employees

Working in the travel industry during the pandemic taught me that nothing is recession proof!
I think it depends on your companies core IP and what It assets they value the most

Chief Information Officer in Construction, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

Long term contracts are about the only thing that is recession-proof everything else is fair game.

Director of IT in Healthcare and Biotech, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

long term contracts like Telecom bills, Internet leased circuits, MPLS, WAN links are fixed contracts and does not change very quickly. Similarly hardware AMCs are all long term contract and do not change. Other then cloud usage is use and pay model like O365 usage, DaaS, AV, DLP etc are also billed as per the actual number of users and does not impact your budgets due to growth variance.

VP of IT in Real Estate, 201 - 500 employees

Any of our multi-year contracts and/or cybersecurity initiatives are recession-proof.

Director of IT in Healthcare and Biotech, 51 - 200 employees

As with most of the respondents I've seen on this post, long term software or service contracts are the only elements fairly recession proof, though beware of loopholes spelled out in tiny print about "periodic reevaluation" and "unforeseen necessity". Tech is a major priority in our healthcare niche, with laser, electronic microscope and other high-end equipment getting the lion's share of the tech budget. Aging servers and endpoints need to be cajoled into functioning for another year. Regular maintenance and keeping up with patches helps to some extent.

Director of Engineering in Media, 10,001+ employees

It is difficult to analyze IT budget items which are recession proof as there will be significant impact on budgets for IT spending during recession. However, one should look at the industries which are relatively recession proof like healthcare and utilities.

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Do you agree with this forecast? IDC predicts that cloud-related technologies will account for 27% of digital transformation IT spending this year, growing to 37% in 2026, as businesses focus on establishing digital HQs to deliver customer and employee success from anywhere.

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If you had a magic wand - what's the #1 daily business challenge you'd eliminate?

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CTO in Software, 201 - 500 employees

Without a doubt - Technical Debt! It's a ball and chain that creates an ever increasing drag on any organization, stifles innovation, and prevents transformation.

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