Companies are still concerned about the economy, but that hasn't stopped them from funneling more of their revenue to the IT department, according to the latest survey data from the Society for Information Management (SIM).
A report compiled by Microsoft and HP purports to demonstrate that the Munich city government's well-publicized switch to Linux from Windows actually cost more money than it saved has come in for a fresh round of criticism, this time from the city itself. According to a report from The H Online, city officials in Munich have said that the study makes some false assumptions to arrive at the conclusion that the Linux transition cost nearly $82 million, while the equivalent OS and productivity upgrades in a purely Microsoft environment would have cost just under $23 million.
The view of IT as ‘just another expense’ that seems to be widely held among chief financial officers is changing, according to Gartner. The research firm found that CFOs are now starting to understand that IT can help the wider business and are investing in technology.
Companies are still looking for ways for IT to reduce costs, still trying to increase employee productivity, and still cautious about raising IT salaries, according to the latest survey data from the Society for Information Management (SIM).
IT budgets and responsibilities are moving out of the control of IT departments and into the hands of others, thanks to trends such as consumerisation and cloud computing, Gartner says in its vision for 2012 and the coming years.
As is the case with selling McMansions, Mercedes SUVs and 63-inch HDTVs, pushing expensive technology products and services during a global recession isn't an enviable task. Late last year, when the economic meltdown began and corporate IT budgets went under the CFO's knife, tech vendors had to hastily reevaluate their marketing messages and overhaul their sales tactics.
Having a positive ROI may no longer be enough to get your next major ICT project over the line, according to Gartner.
Early 2008, well before the financial meltdown in mid-September, CIO Michael Twohig met with the executive leadership at Clean Harbors Environmental Services, to discuss the company's 2009 budget. It was the first of many meetings intended to address what they saw as a troubling economy in the coming year, given conditions in the financial markets and general economic indicators.