Worldwide IT budgets are expected to be flat in 2012, when IT budgets in North America and Europe are expected to decline, according to a global survey of chief information officers (CIOs) by Gartner Inc.’s Executive Programs.
Conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011, the survey of 2,335 CIOs, covering 37 industries in 45 countries, concluded that CIO IT budgets are expected to increase just 0.5% worldwide in 2012.
IT investments are expected to be strongest among enterprises in Latin America, whose CIOs expected a 12.7% budget increase for 2012. CIOs in Europe (0.7% decrease) and North America (0.6% decrease) reported the weakest IT investment numbers.
Analytics and business intelligence was rated the top technology priority for 2012, followed by mobile technologies and cloud computing. Mobile technologies also rated highly in the 2011 Top Technology Initiatives list produced early last year based on the results of an AICPA survey of CPAs and financial executives. In the AICPA survey, control and use of mobile devices was listed as the top technology initiative, followed by information security and data retention policies and structure.
In the Gartner survey, the top business priority, as ranked by CIOs, was increasing enterprise growth. The next priorities were attracting and retaining new customers and reducing enterprise costs.
Gartner is an information technology research and advisory company based in Stamford, Conn. Its worldwide survey represents more than $321 billion in CIO IT budgets.
—Ken Tysiac ( ktysiac@aicpa.org ) is a JofA senior editor.
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