The IDC research group (www.idc.com) the business technology spending market will grow at 6.9% 5 year CAGR [compound annual growth rate] from US$236.6 billion in 2012 to $330.7 billion by 2017, while enterprise IT grows slowly at a 1.9% 5 year CAGR from $213.0 billion to 233.5 billion over the same forecast period.

Business funded technology is expected to reach $275.2 billion in 2014, accounting for 55% of total technology spending. Industry specific operation is the largest business line, capturing approximately 45% of total business funded technology in 2014, says IDC.

Enterprise IT spending is growing only at a 1.8% 5 year CAGR, far below the overall five-year technology CAGR of 4.6%. Only healthcare enterprise IT is growing faster (than overall technology spending.

Marketing is the fastest growing functional area, growing at a five-year CAGR of 9.5%, reaching nearly $26 billion by 2017, according to IDC. The marketing function within the Communications and Media industry will spend the most on marketing in 2014, with the retail  vertical growing the fastest over the forecast period (11.2% 5 year CAGR).

"The connection between technology and business is accelerating at lightening pace as business users adopt what IDC refers to as the 'four pillars' — cloud, social, mobile, and analytics. Investments in these key areas are driving business funded technology to reach $275.2 billion  in the United States in 2014, accounting for 55% of total technology spending,” says Eileen Smith, program manager, Global Technology and Industry Research Organization.

The aforementioned “four pillars” are transforming business processes including the technology purchase decision and budget holder. According to the new report, buying power in technology purchases is shifting from CIOs to CMOs, CFOs, VPs of sales, and other line executives. This transformation has immense implications on the selling, marketing and delivering of technologies, according to IDC. Developing a specific set of messages for each of the stakeholders in the buying process, including the CIO and CMO, CFO, and other lines of business executives is fundamental to tapping into these new buying centers, opines the research group.