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Despite the economic slowdown, CIOs still plan to invest in IT initiatives over the next twelve months. That's the finding of a national survey conducted by Robert Half Technology, a provider of IT professionals on a project basis and full-time basis.
"Although times are lean, many companies are finding that they can't afford to postpone IT investments that lead to increased security, efficiencies or revenues," said Dave Willmer, executive director or Robert Half Technology. "Organizations also are trying to make sure they are prepared for growth when conditions improve, and enhancing their IT infrastructure is part of that process."
Based on 1,400 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of companies with 100 or more employees, the study showed that seven out of ten respondents intended to finance technology initiatives. Of those, information security topped the list with 43% of those surveyed citing planned projects in this segment. In industries such as financial services and transportation that number was significantly higher, 59% and 58% respectively.
Next was virtualization with 28% of those interviewed saying they would be implementing initiatives. The move towards virtualization appears to be driven by budget pressures, which are forcing many companies to focus on more cost-effective solutions for servers, storage and networking.
Virtualization tools enable greater consolidation, lower hardware costs, and reduced space and power requirements. Nearly 4 in 10 (39 %) of CIOs at large (1,000+ employees) and midsize (500 to 999 employees) companies plan to invest in this area.
Close behind, 27% planned to earmark dollars for data center efficiency in order to achieve longer-term cost savings. Companies are realizing that by not improving efficiency, it will result in the need for more costly expansions and upgrades in the future.
Tied for 4th on the tech spending list were Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Software as a Service (SaaS), both with 26%. Subscribing to SaaS - rather than purchasing software licenses—is a particularly attractive option for businesses with tight IT budgets. Since applications and data are stored and hosted on the Internet and accessed remotely, this model removes the burden of maintenance, support, software license upgrades and equipment from end users.
The complete list of Top 10 Tech Investments are as follows:
1. Information security (43%)
2. Virtualization (28%)
3. Data Center Efficiency (27%)
4. Tie—Voice over Internet Protocol and Software as a Service (26%)
6. Green IT (20%)
7. Business intelligence (19%)
8. Social networking (18%)
9. Web 2.0 (18%)
10. Outsourcing (16%)
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