Corporate pending on IT set to increase in 2011
A third of CIOs will be investing more in 2011 compared to last year, according to a recent survey.
This latest Strategy Survey is from The Corporate IT Forum. Overall results from the survey reflect a positive outlook for the year ahead from the UK IT industry, with 61% of CIOs planning to maintain or increase their investment levels and 29% focusing on organic growth.
The Corporate IT Forum is an independent, not for profit organisation founded by some of the world’s largest businesses. Members* were surveyed at the end of 2010 about their business, operational and IT strategies for 2011.
The findings show that while cost cutting remains a priority for CIOs (21%), it is not considered to be an end in itself. The majority of CIOs will use any efficiencies made to enter new markets and develop new products.
During the year ahead, the majority of IT departments have said they will focus their strategies on aligning business and IT architectures (59%). Optimising service delivery (55%) is the next strategic priority, followed by ongoing virtualisation (52%). IT professionals will also focus on efficiencies around development and deployment of systems and on transforming business processes and collaboration.
John Harris, Chairman of The Corporate IT Forum says, “What’s evident from our survey is that CIOs are looking to IT to deliver real business advantage. It’s no longer about cost cutting. CIOs are focused on leveraging IT to support the business and drive value, by improving services, transforming processes and supporting expansion in to new markets. Retailers in particular are bullish about the year ahead and the sector is expected to have the highest investment in IT in 2011.”
For Retail, the survey finds that the outlook in this sector is particularly positive, with 80%
stating that their IT spend will be the same or higher than last year compared with 59% across all sectors. Retail is the least concerned with cost cutting (9% compared to 29% across all sectors) and takes the lead in leveraging consumer technology and consumer technology based marketing. Staff cuts and project cancellation, however, remain a concern.
*The survey had 483 respondents
