IDC: Walmart takes the lead in another area

The word “big” is often associated with Walmart, and that adjective also applies to the discount retailer’s IT spending.



According to data from IDC, Walmart Stores Inc. spent more on IT than any other company globally in 2015, to the tune of more than $10.5 billion. No other retailer, not fellow large tech-focused organization Amazon.com, cracked the top 10 list.



Walmart spent substantially more on IT in 2015 than any other company analyzed by IDC. Financial services firm Wells Fargo & Co. came in second at $6.5 billion. The only other organizations on the top 10 list with any real retail affiliation were AT&T Inc. ranked fifth at $5.05 billion, Verizon Communications which ranked seventh at $4.4 billion, and Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, which ranked ninth at $3.7 billion.



IT spending includes hardware, software, IT services, telecommunications services, and internal IT spending. Notable technology projects Walmart has been undertaking include expanding e-commerce, with $2 billion earmarked for e-commerce spending by 2017. The company has also been growing its curbside grocery pickup offering, and operates a proprietary innovation lab in San Bruno, California.



IDC data also indicated that across industries, managed services are starting to reduce the need for internal IT personnel. IT services, or hosted service such as managed cloud computing, represented 32% of CIO budgets in 2015, up from 30% the prior year. Internal personnel costs, which formerly represented the largest single IT line item, came in second at 27% of IT budgets Other leading IT budget areas included hardware (18%), software (15%) and telecommunications (8%).