E-commerce projects are set to drive UK IT departments'
spending growth in 2005-2006, according the latest Computer Weekly
IT Expenditure Survey, produced by Kew Associates.
The focus on e-commerce highlighted in the spending survey
concurs with a report published by the Confederation of British
Industry last week. The E-Value Matters report said the UK had
reached the "end of the beginning" of e-business transformation,
with automation of existing processes evolving into a more
fundamental transformation of business practices.
The Computer Weekly study, based on information from a
database of more than 60,000 IT budget holders, said heavy
investment in customer relationship management and enterprise
resource planning systems appears to have peaked. Users were now
seeking to extract value from their investment, said Kris Wicka,
author of the spending survey.
High spending growth in storage was also receding, said Wicka.
"There is still a high demand but increasing price/performance
means users are getting more for less," he said.
UK IT expenditure growth highlighted the impact of comodisation
of desktops and servers, the continuing importance of disaster
recovery and the growth in outsourcing, said Wicka.
Spending on software has continued to grow, partly due to firms
installing more PCs and upgrades to operating systems and other
software, even though many users are driving down costs by
deploying off-the-shelf products.