News Item Dated: 08 January 2003
From: InformationWeek  (01/06/03); McGee, Marianne Kolbasuk

InformationWeek Research's Outlook 2003 poll finds more optimism among IT managers this year than last, although their corporate strategies are more cautious and risk-averse. Seventy-two percent of managers expect revenue gains this year, compared to 60 percent last year, and many business-technology leaders believe IT will be key to that upswing. On the other hand, around 50 percent of respondents are prioritizing customer relationship management (CRM) this year, compared to 58 percent last year; and out of the 34 categories of technology projects tracked in both the 2002 and 2003 surveys, 75 percent boast fewer managers listing them as upcoming projects this year. In addition, there has been a precipitous drop in cutting-edge technology initiatives.
About 75 percent of respondents list improving returns on capital investment as a priority, while companies aim to cut costs by consolidating IT infrastructure and postponing the implementation of products that promise lower returns. A majority of respondents said that enterprise application projects will have the highest priority, and many such projects will involve existing systems being enhanced with additional features or modules. Another factor impacting spending for certain companies is stricter public regulations. PCs, Windows servers, network- and systems-management applications, and network-security management software are the cornerstones of most managers' technology projects, while there are differences of opinion on the best services rollout strategy: Almost 50 percent say they will not boost spending in 2003, while 30 percent expect to increase spending on IT, networking, or outsourced services.

Interested? For further reading, check out this link: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030102S0004