Fifteen percent expect to invest in data analytics, and the same quantity in compliance. Thirteen percent will spend money on supply chain management systems.

Keith Haviland, managing director of systems integration and consulting at Accenture, which commissioned the survey of 550 executives, said the results demonstrated that businesses "recognise the need to invest in technology to defend and accelerate their competitive position, even in difficult times, which has not always been the case in the past".