IT spending during the next 12 months will grow by 10.1 percent, according to the monthly CIO Magazine Tech Poll released Monday. That"s the highest predicted level of spending since April 2001.

"The 10.1 percent [growth rate] is the strongest forecast in over four years and the single largest increase month-to-month in the five-year history of the poll. But we"re not breaking out the champagne bottles just yet," said Gary Beach, group publisher at CXO Media Inc. "The 10.1 percent isn"t far out of line, but we have to wait a couple more months before we say that spending is back."

Beach said CIOs are switching from just spending to keep up with technology to actually investing in new technology.

"There"s a big difference there," Beach said. "When you"re investing, you"re looking toward the future; when you"re spending, you"re just looking at things more tactically. In the conversations I"ve had with CIOs, they say they"re being asked by the corner office to once again look at changing the business with technology."

Beach said 44.4 percent of the survey respondents said company earnings had the greatest impact on their spending.

"So companies are sitting on oceans of cash, and I believe CEOs are looking to switch from doing more with less to doing more, more quickly," Beach said. "And what we"re seeing is that there"s a decided shift toward a growth agenda with businesses."

Beach said 58.3 percent of the CIOs who responded to the survey said they planned to increase spending on security software, up from 52.5 percent who said that in June; 52.5 percent planned to spend more on storage, up from 49.5 percent in June; and 44.4 percent of the CIOs said they planned to spend more on infrastructure software, up from 38.3 percent who said that last month.

"The one concern is that 20 percent of CIOs say IT labor is hard to find," Beach said. "That"s the first time that"s been in the 20th percentile in probably three years. This time last year, it was about 10 percent, so it"s doubled in a year, and it"s rising consistently."

Beach said he"s concerned that companies will not be able to find and keep the IT labor necessary to handle their overwhelming application backlog.

"You"re not going to attack that with off-the-shelf software; it"s going to be custom applications," Beach said. "And even though companies" budgets are increasing, will they have the competent IT staff that has the skill sets to build the custom applications that businesses are going to need to compete in 2005, 2006?"