After dipping slightly in September, IT spending projections are on the rise, according to the October CIO magazine Tech Poll. In the latest survey, CIOs predicted spending growth of 8.7 percent during the next 12 months, up slightly from the previous month"s projected spending increase of 7.4 percent. The magazine surveyed 241 CIOs in October.

"It was encouraging that (even though) we had a month when budgets tend to be cut a little bit ... this didn"t happen in October," said Gary Beach, group publisher at CIO. "It seems that CIOs are winning the battle with the other "O"s" in terms of getting funding for next year."

Beach said he is encouraged that 36 percent of all the respondents in the poll claimed that their spending would rise next year by 10 percent or more. "That"s pretty good," he said. "To put this in context, this is the strongest October we"ve had since October 2000."

Spending priorities indicate that security software, data networking and computer hardware are the top issues for CIOs, according to the poll.

When asked what government policy or action is most critical to the successful management of their IT programs, almost half the respondents, 48.9 percent, cited less regulation, while 23.4 percent said tax cuts.

The survey also found that nearly half of all respondents, 48.5 percent, have no plans to implement a voice-over-IP plan in the next 12 months.

When asked about spending in eight specific IT categories, the average number of panelists planning to increase spending rose to 45.1 percent in October, up from 43.7 percent in September. Those planning to decrease spending fell to 12.9 percent from 14 percent in September.

Security software was again the strongest sector in the poll, with roughly 63.5 percent of respondents planning to increase spending in that area, down slightly from 65.1 percent who said that in September.

Spending on data networking equipment increased to 51.5 percent in October, up from 42 percent in September, making it the second-highest spending priority of CIOs in this month"s poll.

The October results showed that 51.3 percent of panelists plan to increase spending on computer hardware, up from 49.6 percent in September, while 14.6 percent plan to cut hardware spending. That"s down just slightly from the 15.5 percent who said in September they planned to cut computer hardware spending.

Each month, CIO magazine surveys a panel of IT executives on current and future IT spending and other IT issues. The survey is done in partnership with Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Oak Associates Ltd., and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

The latest poll was conducted from Oct. 7 to Oct. 18. Eighteen percent of the responses came from executives at companies with more than 5,000 employees.