Any Answers: How much should you spend on IT? By Simon Hurst

Hi Leigh

Not really - I've tried for years to get some decent benchmark on IT investments within accounting practice, and the IT Faculty survey figures included in the article were about the best I could come up with so far. If you find anything I'd be very interested. In the accountancy sector, some of the groupings such as 2020 and UK 200 may have some of this information, but I'm not sure how willing they would be to share it.

As I mentioned in the article, there are good arguments for evaluating IT investments like any other on a cost/benefit basis rather than some dubious average, but I appreciate it's useful to be able to point out that an organisation is spending less than others in the same sector.

Good luck

Simon

Hi Richard - I'm struggling to see how you come to that conclusion, particularly in the context of the original question. The question made it clear that there was a particular investment in mind. 'What IT should you invest in?' is an equally interesting question (which no doubt we will look at sometime soon) but it wasn't the question that was asked. In several places the article stressed the need to evaluate the benefit of the intended IT investment.

But perhaps I've misunderstood the comment.

Wouldn't it best to find out what to use IT for first of all, and then buy to suit the need?

I can't help but think that this article is extraordinarily like typical accountancy - a price for everything, a value for nothing.

Richard Murphy