Minority of US CIOs upbeat about IT budget growth

Most chief information officers don't expect information technology budgets to grow next year, according to a survey released on Tuesday by investment firm Credit Suisse First Boston.

Just 44 per cent of US-based CIOs expect overall IT budget growth next year, according to the survey of 100 CIOs. On a brighter note, 54 per cent of them indicated that overall software spending for 2004 will increase year over year, according to the report. For 2003, 49 per cent of respondents expect software spending to grow.

In terms of IT spending on consulting and system integration services, the survey suggests a "positive but subdued outlook", CSFB said. Thirty-eight percent of CIOs expect spending for consulting and system integration services to be up next year, while 31 per cent expect such spending to be down, and 31 per cent expect it to be flat, according to the survey.

CSFB wrote that it "would have expected firms to be slightly more optimistic given the improving outlook for the economy".

The report is the latest to weigh in on what's ahead in IT spending. Although there are signs of overall economic recovery, recent reports on the future of IT spending have been inconsistent.

According to the CSFB survey, security was the dominant spending priority, followed by "disaster recovery/high availability". High-availability technology keeps computer services running, even when individual computers fail.

In applications, both enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) ranked fairly high in terms of priorities, CSFB said.

Ed Frauenheim writes for CNET News.com.