Gartner: CIO 2012 IT Budgets Down Slightly In North America

IT budgets are expected to decrease 0.6 percent in 2012 in North America, according to a new global CIO Agenda survey by Gartner.

In addition, CIOs expect to have to deliver more productivity from IT without an increase in funding.

"Technology's role in the enterprise is increasing. This does not mean, however, that the role of the IT organization is increasing," said Mark McDonald, group vice president for Gartner Executive Programs and Gartner Fellow. "CIOs concentrating on IT as a force of operational automation, integration and control are losing ground to executives who see technology as a business amplifier and source of innovation. Effective leaders use technology, which includes IT, to strengthen the customer experience and eliminate costly internal distortions. They are using technology to 'amplify' the enterprise."

In terms of projected IT budgets, North America fares only slightly better than Europe, where CIOs expect an average 0.7 percent decrease in IT budgets.

Meanwhile, CIOs in Latin America (average 12.7 percent increase) and Asia/Pacific (3.4 percent increase) expect their IT budgets to rise. Gartner conducted the study with 2,335 CIOs, representing more than $321 billion in IT budgets and covering 37 industries in 45 countries, according to the research firm.

Larger organizations, those with IT budgets more than $500 million, have continued to cut their IT expenditures, offsetting modest growth in the rest of the survey population, according to Gartner.

"The survey results show that CIOs believe that the customer experience is the greatest opportunity for IT-enabled innovation," said Dave Aron, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "As business executives see the potential of technology to transform customer channels and the customer experience, their view of technology has leapfrogged conventional ideas of IT."

CIOs chose analytics and business intelligence as their top technology priority for 2012, according to the survey. That was followed by mobile technologies, cloud computing, collaboration technologies and virtualization in the top 5.

The same study found that increasing enterprise growth was chosen as the top business priority for the CIOs' organizations. Other top business priorities in order include attracting and retaining new customers, reducting enterprise costs, creating new products and services and delivering operational results.

"In the face of continued economic uncertainty and government austerity, business strategies call for a combination of growth and operational efficiency," McDonald said in the statement. "Present economic conditions may tempt CIOs to force IT back into cost-cutting mode, but senior executives expect technology -- and this includes IT -- to address the tough challenges by amplifying enterprise strategies and operations."