IT budget optimism
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Two independent analyst groups have found that IT decision makers are "cautiously optimistic" that their budgets will rise in 2004.
Two independent analyst groups have found that IT decision makers are "cautiously optimistic" that their budgets will rise over 2004.
Surveys of CIOs by IDC in the UK and Forrester Research in North America both found that the largest chunks of investment are being directed at security and mobility, as well as basics like PCs and servers. Applications which improve understanding of a company's customers are also a high priority, with UK companies spending more on customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence finding favour in North America, particularly with manufacturing and retail companies.
IDC found that 42% of UK IT budget holders believed they would have more money to spend in 2004 as the pressures of economic uncertainty are increasingly displaced by the need for product renewals and upgrades. In fact, 63% of companies expect to replace significant quantities of PCs and 43% have plans to buy new servers. Almost half of respondents to IDC's survey said that technological improvements had persuaded them to free up funds for IT.
Forrester's survey of over 870 IT decision-makers at large North American companies revealed an average expectation of a 2.4% spending increase, up from the projections of 1.7% made six months ago. Business services and finance companies will lead the spending revival, Forrester found, with a more substantial 4% budget rise.
Across all verticals, mobility is the most popular area of investment, with 60% of companies surveyed planning to increase implementations of wireless LANs over the next 12 months, while new regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley are driving 30% to increase spending on enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.
