Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Yet more light at the end of the tunnel

After the optimistic report from IDC last week regarding IT spending, Forrester Research is now projecting that North American IT spending will increase 2.3% over 2001. This is based on Forrester's survey of companies with annual revenues over $500M. Most encouraging, 55% of respondents indicate that their executives are now willing to "spend what it takes" on IT, up from only 20% at the beginning of 2002. Retail, consumer service, insurance, and transportation industries are sectors that show the greatest postive signs, while high tech firms actually show a drop in projected spending. In addition, firms under $1B in annual revenue appear more likely to increase spending than larger firms. CIO Information Network provides more details on the Forrester study.

In addition, a separate report from the US Department of Commerce also sounds a positive note on IT spending, saying that US businesses are now spending more on IT than any time since late 2000.