Corporate IT Spending Outlook for 2004

by George Westerman

Contrary to the rosier findings in other studies, a recent Cutter Consortium survey of IT decisionmakers shows that IT spending, as a percentage of total organizational expenses, will remain steady, although a bit flat, in 2004. The survey finds that the actual amount of money that corporations plan to spend on IT may increase slightly, but it won't keep pace with inflation or growth in other expenses. Even a slight increase in spending is welcome, but suppliers and IT managers might want to wait a bit before cheering an end to the technology slump. After all, one-third of the 97 organizations represented in the survey plan to cut IT spending relative to other spending.