This research explores the level of spendings on Information Technology (IT) undertaken by São Paulo State Government and its evolution from 2004 to 2013. It started on the assumption that companies have increased their investments in IT over recent years, as a natural consequence of IT evolution and the large number of new features available. Thus, the relative importance of IT to a company could be measured by the volume of IT spending over the volume of its total expenditure. Results show that São Paulo State Government investment in IT has increased in absolute terms over this period, however the portion of total budget invested in IT has not grown, and keeps virtually frozen over last years, at percentages close to 1%, which indicates that the relative importance of IT as a Government priority has not increased.
The high investments needed to finance the resources of Information Technology (IT) involve risks and demand assertiveness and alignment with the organization strategies, as well as the responsibility of all the sectors of the organization, and not only IT sector. This scenario results a continuous improvement in importance of Information Technology Governance (ITG) in public and private organizations in the last years. This research studied the level of investment in IT and its evolution within departments of São Paulo State Government from 2004 to 2013, and its relationship with ITG maturity. It started on the assumption that managers with higher ITG maturity have a greater understanding of the strategic importance of IT, are better prepared to manage their budget and are better qualified to elaborate and argue in favor of IT projects proposals. This way, they could take ownership, towards IT, of a larger portion of the company's total budget. It was also considered that companies have increased their investments in IT over recent years, as a natural consequence of IT evolution and the large number of new features available. The research was based on secondary data provided by the State Government, and used factor analysis technique for generating a factor score that could be used as a single indicator of departments maturity level. This information was correlated with the IT investment share of each department through correlation analysis and linear regression. Finally, categories have been defined for ITG maturity level and for level of investment in IT, and the secretariats were categorized and grouped by category. Based on obtained groups, a correspondence analysis among categories was undertaken. The results revealed that there is no relationship between ITG maturity level and level of investment in IT and its evolution: departments with high levels of ITG maturity had lower investment in IT levels, and less mature departments had higher levels of investment in IT. It also showed that around 40% of analysed departments showed low ITG maturity level, holding factorial scores below one (1)-on a scale from 0 to 5. Results also showed that State Government investment in IT has increased in absolute terms over the period, however the portion of total budget invested in IT has not grown, and keeps virtually frozen over last years, at percentages close to 1%. In fact, the level of investment in IT has decreased over the period for most part of State departments, which indicates that the relative importance of IT as a Government priority has not grown.
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