IT Spending

IT SPENDING
Companies Haven't Curtailed Tech Budgets--Yet
Despite the economic uncertainty, most IT executives expect to get extra money for projects in 2008. Overall, a little more than two-thirds of those surveyed earlier this year on IT spending anticipate getting the go-ahead to make expenditures above and beyond their budget. That number sagged a bit from 2007, but it revealed a strong optimism that economic doubt won't immediately curtail IT spending.

Project execution also remains a high budgeting priority. More than half of this year's IT budgets have been devoted to maintaining ongoing initiatives, while the rest is split evenly between completing active projects and launching new ones. Those figures held up across all company sizes, illustrating a consistent expectation that IT operations aren't likely to change--yet.

Services--typically one of the first areas cut in a slowdown--are a large component of IT budgets, particularly among large companies, where they rank second to staff. On the savings side, CIOs and their teams are reaping benefits from investing in infrastructure consolidation and increased virtualization.