Enterprise IT budgets are expected to be flat in 2010, but CIOs should use those funds to adopt new technologies and solve daily operational irritants that detract from strategic, competitive projects.

This was the advice from Gartner as it made public some details of this year's global CIO survey, in which it also said IT leaders should be prepared to move from cost cutting to seeking productivity gains.

Mark McDonald, Gartner group vice-president of programmes, said 1,600 companies with an IT spend of $126bn surveyed last year had showed average year-on-year budgets declines of 8% wiping out increases in the previous four years.

"CIOs see 2010 as another tough year; 41% expect continued business contraction, while 53% see stabilisation and 6% see actual real growth coming," he said.

"People know that IT is strategic but it's the operational issues that get in the way of realising that value," said MacDonald, adding 50% of respondents expected the look of IT and their role in it to change as the economy lifted.

"2010 should be the year that we make the transition from IT being a resource-based back-office function to become a results based source of innovation and advantage," he added.

Meanwhile, forecasts released in March 2010  said there will be an uptick in IT spending in 2010, but those budgets that do grow will increase by only 1 to 5 percent.

There will be some uptick in IT budgets for the year, but only in the 1 to 5 percent range, Ovum analysts said in a report March 9.

Don’t expect IT spending to increase too much in 2010, according to research firm Ovum.

In fact, most enterprises will see no change in their IT spending, a survey of IT decision makers by Ovum found. Some will see their budgets decline further.

Ovum’s predictions are a little less optimistic than those of other analyst firms. IDC analysts in February predicted that IT spending will grow 3 percent this year, with much of that coming from such emerging markets as India and China. Worries about the global economy and a continued crunch on credit will help keep spending down, they said.

Meanwhile, Ovum’s predictions are a little less optimistic than those of other analyst firms. IDC analysts in February predicted that IT spending will grow 3 percent this year, with much of that coming from such emerging markets as India and China. Worries about the global economy and a continued crunch on credit will help keep spending down, they said.

In its report released February 3, 2010, IDC analysts said that continued worries around the global recession as well as tight cash and credit flow will hold down spending in more established regions, including the United States, where IT spending will grow less than 3 percent.

IT spending will reach $1.48 trillion this year, slightly below the $1.5 trillion spent in 2008.

IDC’s forecast was less optimistic than Gartner’s, which is predicting a 4.6 percent increase. Such regions as the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America will see the greatest percentage increases in IT spending, IDC says.

IDC’s numbers are slightly less optimistic than those put out by Gartner Jan. 21. In that report, Gartner analysts said they expect spending to grow 4.6 percent, to $3.4 trillion, equaling what Gartner said was spent in 2008.

Gartner analysts said they were encouraged by the numbers, and hadn’t expected to see spending return to 2008 levels until 2011.

computer weekly