Is Your IT Budget Being Spent Effectively?

63% of IT spending is nondiscretionary
87% say their executive teams feel IT spending is at appropriate levels
16% increase in ERP spending is planned for 2005
37% say they are spending more on IT than their competition

Spending on information technology looks to be coming out of its slump—finally. According to the 438 IT executives who responded to this month's survey on IT spending, IT budgets are increasing by 5 percent in 2005, even though nearly half still say corporate cost-cutting remains their primary goal. Investments in revenue-generating technologies such as CRM and business intelligence are continuing to increase, but companies aren't focusing on them alone. Instead, they're spreading their newfound wealth around on security, wireless technologies and a wide variety of initiatives and upgrades geared toward improving integration, efficiency and business processes. Overall, it's an encouraging picture, especially since few CIOs continue to hear complaints that IT is spending too much. Unfortunately, half of CIOs worry that their companies still aren't spending enough on IT to meet their strategic goals, and even more indicate concerns with alignment. If IT initiatives fail to achieve company goals, will CEOs be willing to keep increasing IT spending?

To download the survey results, click here.