Forrester: Australian IT budgets set to rise

09.03.2006
Australian and New Zealand organizations are feeling optimistic this year, and this is flowing through to IT budgets which are set to rise by 5 percent.

Forrester's IT budget forecast released this week shows 33 percent of companies anticipate an IT budget increase of an average 5 percent in 2006, with only 18 percent of respondents expecting a reduction in budget.

The forecast found that worldwide, Australian and New Zealand companies show the strongest alignment of IT with business in supporting organizational goals such as improving productivity and reducing cost. However, senior decision makers are split over whether IT adequately supports activities such as re-engineering core business processes or driving innovative markets.

New investments are on the horizon with 26 percent of respondents planning purchases this year, up 8 percent from last year.

One quarter of respondents see security related purchases as a critical priority, 22 percent see infrastructure consolidation and disaster recovery as major focus areas, and 19 percent are prioritizing application upgrade or replacement.

"These improvement activities will ultimately assist Australia and New Zealand in further reducing the maintenance budget allocation, releasing more funding for future years," Forrester analyst Sam Higgins said.