Once Again Business, Not IT Top Concern for CIOs

Similar results were found when CIOs were asked about staff salaries. Eighty-one percent (81%) of respondents said staff salaries stayed the same or increased in 2009, while 91% expect salaries to stay level or increase in 2010. Again, back to pre-recession levels.

“Here’s what’s happening: overall, budgets are the same or down for this year,” said Luftman. “And it looks like, for next year, less of them are going to be down. So, that’s good news. It looks clearly that companies are not laying off IT people because spending for employees is up, but what seems to be happening, where they’re meeting their budgets, is they’re not hiring as much. So, the good news is we’re not laying off as much … but they’re not hiring and where there is a skills gap, they seem to filling that gap by outsourcing domestically instead of offshore this year.”

Nearly 250 companies participated in this year’s survey, answering questions on spending, salaries, job scope of IT professionals and technical business trends, including their top six applications and technology investments:

1) Business Intelligence

2) Server Virtualization

3) ERP Systems

4) Customer Corporate Portals

5) Enterprise Application Integration

6) Continuity Planning/Disaster Recovery

In-depth results for this year’s survey will be presented at SIMposium ’09, Fresh Ideas for Peak Performance, November 8-10, 2009 in Seattle, Washington.

“People are waiting for some indication that the end is here and prosperity is here and we can start doing this stuff,” said Luftman. “People are reluctant to say, ‘Everything’s done, let’s move on’. We’re not convinced yet. That’s what these numbers are saying.”