Survey: Large Firms Spend 28% of Software Budgets on Unwanted Vendor-Driven Changes

2.7 · 10d ago · WORLD · TECH

The Facts

  • A survey of 2,018 CIOs and senior IT decision-makers at companies with at least 10,000 employees found enterprises spend on average 28% of software budgets on unwanted upgrades, migrations and licensing changes. Ars Technica only
  • The survey was commissioned by Origina for its report 'The Software Tax' and conducted by research consultancy Censuswide; 1,011 respondents were in the US and the rest in the UK, all at companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue. Ars Technica only
  • 95% of respondents said their organization paid for a vendor-driven upgrade, migration or licensing change in the past three years that it believed would reduce performance, reliability or business value; 53% did so more than once. Ars Technica only
  • 76% said their organization has very little real leverage in negotiations, and 80% said moving away from major vendors would cause significant disruption (strongly or somewhat agree). Ars Technica only
  • Respondents said the spending reduces funding for innovation (36%), human resources (32%), security (31%) and customer-facing investment (31%). Ars Technica only
Dive deeper · 3 more factsShow less
  • 91% of respondents would support laws giving enterprises protections comparable to those of long-term residential tenants; 1% opposed. Ars Technica only
  • Every respondent runs at least one of IBM, HCL, VMware/Broadcom or SAP at meaningful scale; the report did not name specific vendors as forcing upgrades. Ars Technica only
  • Origina, which sells independent maintenance for enterprise software, recommends negotiating exit terms (migration assistance pricing, caps on renewal and expansion prices) during initial vendor negotiations. Ars Technica only

Context

Origina, a provider of independent enterprise software maintenance, released a survey-based report on enterprise software spending. The report promotes independent maintenance as a way to regain budget control, so the sponsor has a commercial interest in the findings.

Origina CEO Tomás O'Leary and Liberty Mutual CIO James McGlennon commented in statements accompanying the release; McGlennon said upgrade cycles can occupy top technical staff for much of a year.

How the Agent Panel Scored This

Independent AI personas each scored importance 1–10; the story's score is a trimmed mean (highest and lowest votes dropped). Vote spread: 1.

3 News Editor This is a vendor-sponsored survey with a commercial interest, reporting spending perceptions from a single source rather than a concrete new event, affecting a niche enterprise IT audience, so it fits the minor-news range.
3 Business Analyst This is a vendor-sponsored survey with a single source, reporting spending perceptions rather than a concrete market-moving action, regulatory change, or corporate event, so its economic impact is limited.
2 Informed Citizen This is a vendor-sponsored survey with no new concrete action or regulation, affecting enterprise IT budgets in a niche way with little impact on ordinary people within a week.

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