The top three priorities for New Zealand CIOs heading towards the end of 2004, and those most likely to be outsourced, are new telecomms technology, improving security and e-business, of both the interenterprise and internal varieties, says Gartner.
Intriguingly, Kiwi companies are keener than their Australians counterparts to cut their telecomms and IT budgets, suggesting they expect outsourcing to deliver the goods more cheaply. Mind you, it could be a simple correction. Gartner’s breakdown of IT&T budgets suggest New Zealand companies spend slightly more proportionately on telecomms than firms on the other side of the Tasman (about 16% compared to 14%).
Some 45% of Australian respondents saw themselves increasing their IT budgets this year, compared to about 37% of New Zealand respondents, though those maintaining current levels of spending are about the same as those increasing budgets, which “indicates that companies have been willing to continue to invest in IT&T despite the current economic downturn, although for some this is with a greater measure of caution”.
As for other priorities, Gartner’s “IT Trends, Australia and New Zealand, 2002” suggests much-touted CRM and supply chain management implementations sit in the middle of the range of importance, above ERP, which is perhaps understandable given its prominence (in mutating or evolving forms) over the past decade. Australians share much of the same priorities overall, and perhaps Linux really is a no-brainer: it’s lowest on the scale of both countries’ priority and outsourcing plans.
Gartner interviewed 232 IT decision-makers across Australasia, most of whom consider their companies “type B” organisations — taking a balanced, managed-risk approach to adoption of new technologies. Their CEOs will be pleased.
Sixty percent of Australian companies spend less than 3% of their annual revenue on IT&T while about 34% of Kiwi firms do the same. However, a larger percentage in this country spends up to 5%.
Across both countries, most CIOs are not planning to increase internal staff numbers, though about a third of firms in this country are. The vast majority of firms employed either fewer than 10 contractors or absolutely none at all.
