Survey finds execs rethinking IT budgets

Growing numbers of chief information officers are re-evaluating their IT budgets and spending plans for coming months, according to one market analyst. Research from Morgan Stanley has found that chief information officerss from Fortune 1000 companies are re-evaluating their budget spending plans in its most recent survey. Top priorities for chief information officers include security software, application integration and Windows 2000/XP upgrades for the desktop. The survey found that integration challenges were slowing the rate of application adoption for 38 percent of those surveyed, with 35 percent indicating it "probably" slowed adoption, and 25 percent saying it didn't. When asked to identify the date of software purchase associated with key implementation projects currently underway, only 22 percent were working on projects related to software purchased this year. "Thirty-two percent are working on implementations related to software bought in 2001, 11 percent from 2000, six percent from 1999, and 11 percent from 1998," the executive summary of the report states. "Until the industry speeds up implementations and makes integration much more simple, the long tail on shelfware implementation will likely continue to be a problem," the report found. In an Industry Overview of the CIO Survey Series: Release 3.4, the authors said that 2002 should be a year of gradual and modest improvement, with further improvements in 2003. "But overall tech spending should lag the pace of the recovery because of the lingering effects of over buying in the past."

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