Boy, were we wrong: All IT plans are not created equal

If you thought that themix of IT projects planned for a given year was consistent industry to industry, you'd be wrong. Well, actually, we were wrong. We tested this simple hypothesis by analyzing our IT priorities dataon 12-month plans with respect to 12 major industry segments. And we learned that not all IT plans are created equal. Consider wired and wireless initiatives--35% of the projects planned in the transportation and utility segment involve networking solutions--20% more than manufacturing, the industry with the 2nd highest proportion of networking projects. The retail industry stands out with more than 20% of plans focused on software, while transportation/utilities have the least (13%). All four featured industry segments have fairly similar plans for hardware upgrades. Not so surprising, financial services has the highest level of security project planning at 12% of all IT initiatives, while the other three industries ring in withabout 1/3 fewer security plans.