Companies set to beef up IT budgets
Rising confidence among enterprises combined with a general improvement in economic outlook will see UK IT budgets increasing during this year, market researchers have predicted.
Link: Spending on IT will boost profits
According to a study from IDC, more than two in five UK firms expect their IT budgets to be increased during 2004, with most increases will focused on priority purchases such as product renewals and upgrades.
‘Attitudes remain cautiously optimistic, but IDC has noted the return of key drivers such as technology improvements and innovation,’ said Elsa Opitz, research analyst with IDC’s European IT markets service, in a statement.
The analyst firm’s poll found that interest in areas such as security, mobility, customer relationship management and web services is very apparent in the UK and spending on these areas is likely to increase as the economy picks up pace and improves.
Almost a quarter of survey respondents cited economic uncertainty as their main business challenge, down from 30% in the previous quarter.
But 64% of firms stated that they feel positive (17%) or slightly positive (47%) that their companies will allocate the necessary budget increases for IT spending in the next 12 months.
Over 60% of companies indicated they are planning to replace PCs and 43% said they are planning to replace server equipment.