Another trend that we see is that decision makers keep changing during the buying cycle. In 2021, 53% of respondents shared that decision makers kept changing quite frequently. In 2022, this number is up 15 percentage points, with 68% of respondents indicating that decision makers keep changing frequently or always during the software buying process. Final decision making seems to be shifting away from the IT department to the C-suite, especially in mid-size companies and enterprises. 33% of respondents considered the IT department to be the final decision maker, down 10 points from last year. 26% of respondents believed the C-suite to be the final decision makers, up 7 points from 2021. Interestingly, about 20% of companies do not have an official software buying process. This number is greater in APAC and EMEA where 25% and 23% of the respondents stated the above, respectively. In North America, the number was lower, at 15%. The point of purchase for software buying is shifting Typically, companies prefer buying directly from vendors, but they are now exploring the option of buying from third-party marketplaces. There is an increase of 6 percentage points in preference to buy from marketplaces, while there is a 9 point decrease in buyers who want to directly buy from vendors. This change is even more pronounced in enterprise companies, where we saw a 10 point increase in respondents who prefer to use third-party marketplaces to purchase software. Frequently changing decision makers and new stakeholders joining at every stage complicate the buying process. 2022 G2 Software Buyer Behavior Report 7