PUBLIC STUDY B2B Europe 2024

CTO Insights for the software industry

EY Parthenon teamed up with Potloc to tap into CTO insights on the biggest trends shaping the software space. Our collaborative report offers key takeaways to help industry players boost margins, drive growth, and elevate technical quality.

Navigating growth in a dynamic software market.

M&A and Gen AI present significant, change-driving opportunities facing the software industry. EY Parthenon and Potloc dug into how CTOs navigate these emerging trends, and the benefits and challenges that come with managing disruption. 

Steve Astier

Senior Account Executive

Sander van Weele

Partner at EY Parthenon

Sampling details.

  • 3

    weeks of fieldwork

  • 14

    data quality checks for respondents

  • 300

    qualified CTOs

  • 9

    targeting countries across Europe

Key challenges — and how we overcame them.

  • TrendUp

    Reaching hyper-busy CTOs.

    C-suite leaders are notoriously hard to survey, but Potloc’s smart sampling engine zeroed in on hundreds of them, efficiently reaching an elusive audience.

  • MapPinSimpleArea

    Rampant survey fraud.

    In a world of B2B impersonators, Potloc’s AI and human checkpoints ensured only genuine CTOs made it through. No bots, fraudsters, or even any shallow answers.

  • SecurityCamera

    A need for in-depth insights.

    Getting 300 CTOs to spend 40 minutes sharing their expertise? Potloc’s expertly designed survey made it happen, uncovering fresh industry POVs.

  • UsersThree

    Turning data into strategy.

    Less time on Excel, more time on insights. Potloc’s instant analysis tools helped EY-Parthenon turn thousands of responses into strategic takeaways, fast.

What the team particularly liked about [Potloc’s analysis platform] was the ability to quickly filter data sets while looking at the output data. Specifically sorting by country, by industry or by size of the respondent’s company. This enabled us to really quickly digest the data sets and come to conclusions quicker than if we would have had to do that ourselves in Excel.
Sander van Weele, Partner at EY-Parthenon, who led the CTO survey.
Sander van Weele Partner at EY Parthenon
EY-Parthenon logo.

Key trends for the software industry.

1

Acquisitions on the rise.

More than half of CTOs made an acquisition in the last three years.
Pie chart showing 54% of CTOs completed an acquisition in the past three years.

54% of CTOs performed an acquisition in the last three years. 

2

How CTOs describe the software industry.

How CTOs describe the European software market.
Chart of how CTOs characterise the market: highly competitive and fast-paced 28%, emerging and disruptive 21%, consumer-driven transformation 17%, mature and stable 10%, regulatory dependent 8%, other 16%.

Almost 50% of all CTOs surveyed describe the software market as highly competitive, fast-paced, and disruptive due to the continuous influx of innovative start-ups.

3

M&A growth fuels tech fragmentation.

Reasons behind low technological maturity after rapid M&A growth.
Ranked chart of causes of low technological maturity: codebase management first, technical skill gaps second, hosting challenges third.

Rapid growth through M&A activities often creates low technological maturity due to challenges in codebase management, technical debt, and fragmentation in hosting.

4

CTOs expect efficiency boosts from GenAI.

Goals CTOs have for implementing generative AI.
Bar chart of GenAI goals: operational efficiency 32%, user experience 20%, product innovation 18%, market reach 14%, faster decision-making 11%, personalized support 5%.

CTOs anticipate a 15% increase in efficiency with the implementation of GenAI.

Our team.

Steve Astier
SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
steve.astier@potloc.com

 

 

Martin Le Tessier
SALES MANAGER
martin.letessier@potloc.com

Kickstart your next thought leadership survey.

With unmatched sample quality, time-saving analysis tools, and dedicated research experts at your disposal, Potloc is the go-to survey partner for PE & consulting firms.

Cover of the EY-Parthenon x Potloc report Navigating Growth in a Dynamic Software Market, based on 300 European and UK CTOs, 2024.
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