Business groups appear to be the "primary driver" behind Software as a Service (SaaS) purchases.
Research conducted by Forrester found that 56 per cent of organizations in North America and Europe surveyed state that business groups are the main driver behind SaaS purchases for business processes, such as times when sales vice-presidents buy hosted software.
However, customers and partners were also shown to have a substantial influence.
Meanwhile, 49 per cent of respondents explained that business managers are behind industry-specific SaaS purchases.
However, the report noted that the ideal would be for IT departments to help business managers with SaaS acquisitions, mitigating long-term risks and controlling the total cost of ownership, Computer World reported.
Liz Herbert, analyst at Forrester, who compiled the report, noted that SaaS adoption "continues to grow across both horizontal categories (such as customer relationship management, human resources, and email) and industry-specific categories (such as SaaS for claims processing or SaaS for hospital management)".