How this works

Technology intensity combines two ratios that mean little on their own: IT spend as a share of revenue, and IT spend as a share of operating expense. Treat them as the two short sides of a right-angled triangle and the hypotenuse, scaled by ten, is your technology intensity.

On its own that number still says nothing about whether the spending is working. A company with 40% margins and one losing money can post the same intensity. So intensity is read against your industry's performance frontier, a curve fitted to the margins of the top performers at each level of intensity. Where you land relative to that curve, and to your industry's optimal intensity range, puts you in one of nine zones.

Fill in the three financial figures and you will get your zone, your position on the curve, and how your run and change split compares to your industry average and its top decile.