Survey: Tech Spending Slump Ending

By Agence France-Presse The slump in global spending on information technology appears to be ending, according to a survey of U.S., European and Asian firms released Feb. 25. The survey of 1,000 CEOs and top technical officers found that 85% of respondents expect to increase or maintain their IT spending levels in 2003, according to IDC, a Framingham, Mass.-based IT market advisory firm. The survey indicates that many organizations will re-evaluate their IT spending plans throughout the year, with improvements in business confidence likely to translate into a solid recovery for IT suppliers. "IT suppliers should monitor economic and business confidence indicators for the early warning signs that IT spending will either exceed or be lower than current projections," says Stephen Minton, program director at IDC. "Just as IT spending was severely disrupted in 2002 by wild-card factors including WorldCom and Iraq, so it is that the outlook for 2003 remains clouded by similar uncertainty." Routine infrastructure upgrades will dominate projects, taking up almost half of all spending in 2003, says Minton. "This isn't surprising, given that a lot of companies have spent very little during the past two years on the technology which is already core to running their business." Minton says pent-up demand is expected to boost sales of storage hardware, PCs and network equipment, although price competition will continue to depress overall revenues in these sectors. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2003