EDGE 2025: A/NZ tech spending budgets to increase significantly in FY26

Businesses across Australia and New Zealand are set to increase their tech budgets significantly in the next year, providing partners region-wide with a massive opportunity.

Speaking during the opening keynote of Day 2 of EDGE 2025, Tech Research Asia executive consultant and industry analyst Mark Iles said that customers are set on ramping up their technology budgets in the next 12 months.

In Australia, 62 per cent of businesses surveyed are looking to increase their tech budgets for the period, which is the highest per centage Iles said he has seen in nine years.

Similarly, 50 per cent of New Zealand businesses also flagged an increase in tech spend, which is the strongest numbers Iles has seen for the market.

Meanwhile, the businesses that aren’t planning to increase their technology budgets across the region are less clear-cut A/NZ wide.

For Australia, 24 per cent of businesses are looking to maintain their tech budgets in Australia, while the number in New Zealand is at 28 per cent per cent.

As for those looking to decrease their tech budget, the figures sit at 14 per cent for Australia and 21 per cent in New Zealand. Iles said the latter was a “relatively high number”, but it’s not due to a lack of demand.

“When we go through the data, it’s actually businesses that are really struggling,” he said. “It’s driven by businesses’ performance in terms of their own sales, their own revenue, their own profitability.

“It’s not symptomatic with their lack of focus on tech.”

Speed in the market

Iles also highlighted the need for partners to keep up with the accelerating speed of change in the technology market, noting that “it’s faster now than we’ve ever seen it”.

“The speed at which we need to realise that our businesses build new service offerings is faster than it’s ever been,” he said. “The customer already wants it but hasn’t actually figured out what the offering is yet.

“How long does it take you to build an offering? Most partners I talked to, it’s about nine months. By the time you figured out what’s the offering, can I deliver the right skills, what’s the vendor stack underneath it, what’s the packaging, pricing, how do I train our sales guys, how do I launch a different website? All of those things take time.”

Keeping up with that speed is all the more important when considering the accelerated pace of AI evolution. Customers know this, and they know they need the help of experts to maximise its usage.

“The good news for all things about AI is they’re looking into the partner ecosystem heavily. They know they can’t do it alone,” Iles added.

“They know they need the expertise, but that expertise needs business context, and that business context is industry related. We can connect the dots here.”

Iles’ presentation at EDGE 2025 was just one of many, with the channel’s most influential players coming together on Day 2 to also learn:

• 96 per cent of ransomware cases investigated by Arctic Wolf involve double extortion, with Arctic Wolf chief information security officer Adam Marrè;
• The need to shift from becoming an MSP to a managed intelligence provider, offering agent orchestration and automation, with Pax8 chief product officer Elizabeth McIlhany;
• The majority of digital first buyers involved in enterprise transactions valued at over $1 million are either Millennials or Gen Z, with Transcends CEO Ashleigh Vogstad;
• Partners should be helping customers to establish data trust and fully embrace AI readiness, with Quest Software Asia Pacific and Japan lead for channel and alliances Angela Maniscalco;
• The ways channel players can find profitable opportunities with AI, with Lenovo ISG head of solutions Julian Badell; and
• Companies looking for a high valuation either need to pull in EBITDA of over $10 million or have a very specialised capability, from Latimer Partners principals Hugh Richards and Mark Nesbitt.