Analyst firm Forrester will kick off its annual EMEA IT Forum in Edinburgh next Monday with a series of keynotes and workshops exploring the growing influence of the business organisation in IT decision making.

Forrester chief executive and founder George Colony will present the opening keynote, highlighting the implications for end users of "the shift from information technology to business technology", according to analyst Pascal Matzke.

There will also be a discussion of how CIOs need to reposition themselves given this changing landscape, and what IT vendors must do to meet the changing needs of their customers.

Matzke will be presenting new research from Forrester that details the impact of IT organisations becoming increasingly embedded in the business.

"We're seeing decision-making power for any purchase is shifting out of the IT organisation to the CFO or lines of business," Matzke added. "Virtually no IT decision is being made without a business case [so] IT managers have to have a sound understanding of the business value of any project or purchasing decision. "

IT leaders’ struggle to deal with the alignment of IT with business is becoming more pronounced because of the economic growth imperatives of today's enterprises, explained Matzke.

Against this backdrop, IT managers need to articulate their requirements in a much more explicit way than they might previously have been used to because many vendors still don't understand the change in purchasing requirements.

"There are a string of tag-lines now, such as Microsoft's 'people ready business', but underneath it's still very much a traditional technology sale and that's a gap the [vendors] need to close," argued Matzke.