IT Spending poised for 2004 growth, AMR reports
The logjam in IT spending is about to break up, says AMR Research Inc. in a new study on IT spending intentions in 2004. AMR reports that 80% of 500 large companies in 13 industries it surveyed plan to maintain or increase spending on information technology next year, with total budgets going up 2%.
"We are seeing purse strings begin to loosen up with the growing demand to replace older systems and the belief that the economy is beginning to improve," said Jim Shepherd, senior vice president of AMR Research. "For this new IT spending to be of most benefit, companies must act now to ensure their IT programs are focused on improving business processes, and ensuring consistency across the enterprise."
AMR’s survey also shows that a shift in spending priorities is underway. Spending on supply chain management technology will account for 16.3% of budgets in 2004 vs. 13.6% this year. Enterprise resource planning applications will account for 27.2% of IT spending next year vs. 26.6% this year. Spending on customer management applications will not grow in importance, accounting for 16% of budgets next year, same as this year.
AMR also reports that 57% of the companies surveyed will outsource application development. The primary areas that companies are outsourcing include web hosting and data centers.
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