Executives have a high degree of regret over technology purchases, said Gartner recently when releasing results of a survey of 1,120 respondents in Asia/Pacific, North America, and Western Europe during November and December 2021.
Survey results indicate that 56% of organisations had a high degree of regret over their largest tech-related purchase in the last two years.
Respondents were required to be at a manager level or higher, aware of large-scale buying efforts for technology occurring during the past two years, and directly involved in the evaluation or selection of products or services for technology projects, Gartner noted.
“The high regret feelings are at their peak for tech buyers that have not started implementation, indicating significant frustration with the buying experience,” said Hank Barnes, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner.
While it was relatively easy for product leaders to predict who buyers were in the past, it was no longer the case, Barnes pointed out, adding that buying team dynamics are changing and customers can find buying to be a real challenge.
Barnes identified key changes in tech buying behaviour during the Opening Keynote of the Gartner Tech Growth & Innovation Conference 2022, taking place virtually recently.
There can be significant downside to regret associated with enterprise technology decisions, he said.
The survey found that the organisations that indicated they had high regret over technology purchases took, on average, seven to ten months longer to complete that purchase, Barnes said.
“Slow purchase decisions can lead to frustrated teams, wasted time and resources and even, potentially, slower growth for the company,” he observed.
Many tech buying decisions made outside IT
According to the survey, 67% of people involved in technology-buying decisions are not in IT which means that anyone could be a tech buyer for their organisation.
In this environment, a new technology adoption chasm is emerging, the advisory firm pointed out.
This new chasm divides organisations that are confident adopters and buyers of technology from the vast majority that are not, Gartner said.
High-tech providers need new approaches to identify and engage these different types of B2B customers and predict which type of customer they are dealing with to improve the odds of winning good business, the firm advised.
