IT Optimistic Over Budgets For 2010

In a reflection of more optimism in business and job prospects for 2010, a new report has found that nearly half of technology professionals expect their budgets to increase next year, but some familiar worries will remain with us for some time.

In the “October Dice Report“, nearly half of technology professionals said they expect their budget to expand “slightly” for 2010, while 29 percent expect a decrease, and 22 percent see no new funds coming.

“When asked about budget allocations, technology professionals were almost evenly split between investing money into people and investing in technology. With 49 percent of respondents choosing to fund systems, projects or software, there is still a strong belief that proper investment in technology will help the bottom line of any business,” said Dice spokesman Tom Silver in the report.

But there seems to be a split on how the budget will be spent. When the survey asked the following question on using the budget – “If it were up to you, how would you allocate your company’s IT budget?” – 26 percent said they would add staff; 25 percent said they would give everyone a raise; 25 percent said it would be spent on new projects or systems; 15 percent said they would upgrade hardware; and 9 percent said they would upgrade software.

Cost-cutting, however, is still on the mind of most CIOs and senior leaders of technology.

When IT technology executives were polled by the Society for Information Management (SIM) earlier this year, business productivity and cost-cutting topped the list of priorities for 2009. Business intelligence applications topped the list for important technologies, followed by “server virtualisation, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, customer/corporate portals, enterprise application integration/management (EAI/EAM), and continuity planning/disaster recovery,” as told in a SIM news release.

“The results of the study confirm that the economic downturn has caused a significant shift in priorities,” said Jerry Luftman, former SIM vice president for Academic Community Affairs and executive director of Graduate Information Systems Programs and distinguished professor of Information Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology. “IT executives are focusing on ensuring that business is conducted efficiently to get more mileage out of their budgets.”

SIM’s own projections for next year’s budget show a bit of the opposite from Dice: More than half see lower budgets, with only 25 percent seeing increases.