Corporate spending on IT in the UK grew 6.5% in 2003, and will grow 6.2% in 2004, according to Forrester Research, with content management software and wireless networks helping to drive the overall spending figure upwards.

But although the report finds IT spending growth in the UK and France to be healthy, elsewhere in Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, it will remain flat and may even have fallen in 2003.

Forrester identifies a number of technologies that are receiving increased investment, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, web services, mobile technology and content management systems. But it warns that spending on consultants and systems integrators will remain flat.

The adoption of outsourcing will continue in the UK in 2004, with large companies expecting to spend 39% of their overall IT budgets on outsourcing, up from 32% in 2003.

There is mixed news for IT workers. Although 38% of large companies – those with more than 5,000 employees – expect to cut IT staff, only 8% of mid-sized companies expect to make cuts.