Analysts at odds over IT spend stats

It appears the analyst community just can't make up its mind about the future of IT spend. One analyst house says the future looks dark, other reseachers say it's never looked better.

Research by MetaGroup claims its findings show that while IT spend outside of the US will increase in 2001 by six per cent, it will be flat for next year. But other reports suggest the opposite.

A survey released by silicon.com earlier this month questioned 6,000 IT directors, of which 92 per cent said they actually expected their expenditure to increase, with the worse case scenario showing static growth. Only 7.8 per cent of respondents were expecting a decline in spend over the next twelve months.

This more positive outlook is supported by IDC. A special report issued by the company, following the 11 September attacks, said 2002 will be a better year than 2001 and predicts that global IT spend will grow by over six per cent in 2002.

But the situation is not so positive in the US. Meta suggests spending will decrease by as much as 5 per cent in 2002, compared with an 8 per cent increase this year.

If this is the case, US companies could have a significant problem on their hands. A guidance report issued by Gartner research last week insists that for enterprises that want to sustain planned growth, their strategy must be to maintain or increase spend.

Critically, Gartner's advice to CEOs and CIOs is to decide what IT investments are 'must haves' and which are simply 'nice to have'.