Only 12% of Indian enterprises have unified view of IT spending: Cognizant report

Only 12% of Indian enterprises have a fully consolidated, enterprise-wide view of their IT spending, limiting their ability to optimise technology investments and generate better business outcomes, says a new report released by Cognizant.

The report, titled 'Smarter IT Spend: From Cost Control to Cost Intelligence' highlights that while organisations are increasing investments in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and digital transformation, fragmented data across business units, platforms and tools continues to hamper effective IT cost management.

Based on a survey of 105 senior business and technology leaders from large Indian enterprises, the study found that 63% of respondents identified fragmented data across systems and tools as the biggest obstacle to achieving cost intelligence. The lack of a unified view of IT expenditure also slows decision-making and restricts organisations from reallocating budgets quickly as business priorities evolve.

The report found that only 49% of enterprises have a formal and agile process to reallocate IT budgets when priorities change. Rigid budgeting cycles, cited by 64% of respondents, organisational resistance (51%), and the lack of real-time data (31%) emerged as the biggest challenges to faster budget reallocation.

While 62% of organisations have adopted centralised and automated cost management platforms, many are yet to translate the insights generated by these systems into actionable business decisions. About 59% said they could allocate IT costs at a detailed service or product level, whereas others continue to rely on partial or high-level allocation methods.

Sector-wise, manufacturing companies have made greater progress in achieving consolidated IT cost visibility, while banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and pharmaceutical companies continue to struggle with fragmented visibility. Global capability centres (GCCs), meanwhile, reported relatively higher levels of consolidated IT cost visibility than other sectors.

Achal Kataria, Vice President and India Country Head at Cognizant, said enterprises are grappling with growing complexity as they scale AI, cloud and digital initiatives simultaneously.

"While technology investments are accelerating, cost visibility remains fragmented, limiting the ability to turn spend into business value. Organisations need to move from traditional cost management to AI-powered, always-on cost intelligence to enable faster and more informed decision-making," said Kataria.