Are North American IT departments too soft on ROI?

Asia Pacific IT executives have short time frames for return on technology investments while their North American counterparts can tolerate two years or more without a payoff, according to a Hewlett-Packard sponsored survey.

The survey was conducted by Coleman Parkes Research and was based on 560 detailed interviews with CIO and tech executives as well as CEOs and business leaders. HP is hoping to wrap breaking what it calls "innovation gridlock" with a new bundle of services.

Pitch aside, the survey results turned up some interesting findings when it comes to cultural differences in IT management. Simply put, there's little patience for long payback periods in emerging markets.

Check out the ideal payback window question:

And the maximum time period executives would wait for ROI on an investment.

Clearly, the IT managers in Asia-Pacific aren't going to stick around for big bang tech projects. In fact, if ROI doesn't land in six months projects are likely to be deemed a disappointment.

Separately, HP announced a enterprise business services bundle that focuses on modernizing systems. The most interesting element may be HP's  self-funding analysis. HP will look at your current IT outlays and find enough places to cut to create space for modernization programs.