By the Numbers: January 2004

The Spending Outlook: Security Gets Priority

Information technology professionals say they expect their top priorities for 2004 will be spending on security software and hardware, according to a survey by Gartner Inc. and SoundView Technology. On average, companies anticipate increasing spending on I.T. by 4.3% over 2003.

ROI Matters

Companies expect technology spending to provide a return on investment (ROI), 40% of all investments needing to show a payback in one to two years. What purchases get the biggest bang for the buck? Two out of three surveyed say the purchase of applications software.

Source: Gartner and SoundView Spending Survey of 615 I.T. professionals

Paying as You Go

Count on seeing more software vendors offering their products on a subscription basis—a trend partially fueled by demand at large companies. What’s not clear, says Merrill Lynch analyst Jason Maynard, is the impact the shift will have on software ownership costs.

Are software vendors moving from a license to a subscription model?

Are you in favor of a subscription model?

Tags Not it

Don’t expect to see radio frequency ID tags everywhere this year. Wal-mart wants its top 100 suppliers to use the technology by January 2005. But IDC predicts that fewer than 50% will have early-stage pilots running by that deadline. Bottom line: Wal-mart will have to extend the deadline or narrow the scope of its requirements, says IDC.

PC Demand—It’s Back

Demand for PCs by companies has been strong, and is expected to continue growing this year. Spending by the U.S. federal government has remained strong and business spending shows gradual improvement, according to IDC.

Take This Paycheck

As the U.S. economy recovers, salaries for information technology executives are expected to increase, for the most part, in the coming year, according to Janco Associates.