Glimmer of hope shines on ICT budgets for Australian CIOs

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 19 August 2009 10:20

IT Industry - Market

Early polling of Australian CIOs by analyst Gartner suggests that ICT budgets will grow modestly in 2010.

After a horror poll at the end of the first quarter which saw Australian CIOs report they expected to be forced to slash ICT budgets by an average 6% this year, it seems that the worst has passed. According to Andrew Rowsell-Jones, Gartner vice president and research director, while “CIOS are mindful of costs there is not the same level of focus as (during) the first few months of 2009.

“Cost isn’t going to go away, but we are beginning to see a return to growth. The comments made by Glenn Stevens (Governor of the Reserve Bank) on 4th of August in the minutes of the RBA meeting suggest that 2010 will return to growth - I’m paraphrasing, but that’s essentially what he’s saying. That seems to be to be a consensus view.”

Stressing that Gartner’s CIO survey was still a work-in-progress, and that these were preliminary rather than definitive findings, Rowsell-Jones said “There seems to be a consensus, if not for heady growth of 10%, still to see ICT budgets in positive territory in Australia in 2010. From the CIO perspective we are expecting to see modest growth.”

There was also some indication that a green IT renaissance might be in the pipeline. During the past 12 months “Green IT fell off the perch,” said Roswell-Jones, as CIOs focussed all their efforts on cost reduction initiatives. Now however “We are seeing a green renaissance. There is a notion that green is going to matter again.”