The 2006/2007 IT Spending, Staffing, and Technology Trends study provides a comprehensive view of the current state of IT budgeting, staffing levels, hiring practices, and technology adoption for business and governmental organizations in North America.

Audience:

For IT decision-makers, this study provides objective data and key metrics for the following uses:

-- Benchmarking and justifying the organization's IT operational and capital budgets as well as IT staffing levels by comparing them with those of organizations of similar size and industry sector.

-- Evaluating the state of adoption and the ROI/TCO for various technologies and IT initiatives, to better understand the business case and risks in implementing them.

-- Understanding current trends in IT outsourcing to evaluate where other organizations are increasing use of outside service providers to manage key IT functions, by size of organization and industry sector.

For providers of IT products and services, this study is a valuable source of insight into the IT buyer spending and staffing priorities, current trends in hardware and operating system platform usage, and the rate of buyer adoption and perception of value for many new technologies and IT services. This study provides objective data that is based on a survey of IT decision makers. As such, it can be a valuable source of information to validate assumptions underlying business development plans.

Chapter 1 provides a summary of the seven major findings from this year's study. It also describes the contents of the subsequent chapters, and gives detailed information about the demographics of the study participants and the survey methodology.

Chapter 2 provides composite metrics for all organizations surveyed. It begins with an introduction focused on overall trends in IT spending, staffing, and hardware platform trends. It then shows the IT intensity of the composite sample in terms of the percentage of employees that use IT and the number of desktops per user. The percentage of IT spending on new development versus maintenance is also provided. These metrics are useful in comparing the IT intensity of a specific organization to the intensity of the composite sample.

Chapter 2 continues by showing IT operational spending in eight metrics, each of which is reported at the median, 25th percentile, and 75th percentile for the composite sample:

-- IT operational budget allocations, in dollars

-- IT operational budget percentage change from last year

-- IT operational budget forecasted percentage change for next year

-- IT operational budget as a percentage of revenue (see Figure 1)

-- IT operational budget per employee

-- IT operational budget per user of IT

-- IT operational budget per desktop (including laptops)

Chapter 3 provides a view of the state of adoption for 28 important technologies and IT initiatives. These include data center consolidation, server consolidation, storage consolidation, application system consolidation, Linux, ERP software, CRM software, supply chain software, voice over IP (VoIP), unified messaging, storage area networks (SANs), utility computing, hosted applications (or, software as a service), data warehouse, data mining, wireless LANs, handheld wireless e-mail devices, RFID, VAN-based EDI, Internet-based EDI, XML, service-oriented architecture (SOA), open source development, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), IT asset management systems, project management office (PMO), Six Sigma, and CMM/CMMI.

Chapter 4 reports the economic experiences of respondents with a variety of information technologies and IT initiatives, including mainframes, Unix, Linux, Microsoft Windows Server OS , portable PCs (laptops), handheld wireless email devices (e.g. Blackberry), virtual Private Network (VPN), data center consolidation, server consolidation, storage consolidation, application systems consolidation, ERP software, CRM software, supply chain software, voice over IP (VoIP), unified messaging, storage area networks (SANs), utility computing, software on-demand (hosted applications), data warehouse, wireless LANs, RFID, VAN-based EDI , Internet-based EDI, and IT asset management systems.

Chapter 5 provides a detailed analysis for eight categories of outsourcing. For each category, we report the level of adoption overall, the percent of organizations increasing their use of outsourcing, the percent decreasing their use of outsourcing (or "back-sourcing"), and the percent staying at the same level of outsourcing. This data is provided for the composite sample, by organization size, and by industry sector.

The eight categories of outsourcing are:

-- Outsourced software development/maintenance/testing

-- Outsourced website or e-commerce hosting and maintenance

-- Hosted applications (software on-demand, or software as a service)

-- Outsourced disaster recovery services

-- Outsourced network operations

-- Outsourced desktop support

-- Outsourced data center operations/management

-- Outsourced help desk

Chapter 6 provides benchmarks broken down by organization size, across all sectors. Organization size is defined as:

-- Large organizations: over U.S. $750 million in annual revenue

-- Medium organizations: $250 million to $750 million

-- Small organizations: $50 million to $250 million. (There are no respondents under $50 million in annual revenue in this study this year.

In the case of governmental organizations, the annual operating budget of the agency is used in place of annual revenue

The benchmarks provided in this chapter are the same as for Chapter 2 (Composite Benchmarks), except that recruiting metrics are not reported. Each metric is reported by organization size.

Chapter 7 provides benchmarks for banking and finance organizations, across all organizational sizes. Respondents in this sector this year include business and consumer commercial banks, mortgage lenders, investment banks, security brokerage firms, real estate investment trusts, and other types of banking and finance organizations.

The benchmarks provided in this chapter are the same as for Chapter 2 (Composite Benchmarks), except that recruiting metrics are not reported

Chapter 8 provides benchmarks for insurance organizations, across all organizational sizes. Respondents in this sector this year include organizations providing life insurance, title insurance, fire/marine/property/casualty insurance, automobile insurance, workman's compensation, and various types of liability insurance. It also includes companies that provide services directly to the insurance industry, such as insurance information services and claims processing organizations.

This sector includes health insurance firms, but not health plans that are engaged in healthcare delivery: healthcare providers are included in Chapter 9.

The benchmarks provided in this chapter are the same as for Chapter 2 (Composite Benchmarks), except that recruiting metrics are not reported.

Chapter 9 provides benchmarks for healthcare organizations, across all organizational sizes. Respondents in this sector this year include hospitals, outpatient clinics, assisted living and long-term care facilities, home healthcare providers, and other organizations engaged in the direct delivery of medical services.

Chapter 10 provides benchmarks for discrete manufacturing organizations, across all organizational sizes. Discrete manufacturers are defined as those where the production process adds value by fabricating or assembling individual (discrete) units of production. Respondents in this sector this year include manufacturers of aircraft, automobiles, consumer products, industrial components, instrumentation, electronics and electronic components, and many other types of discrete products.

Chapter 11 provides benchmarks for process manufacturing organizations, across all organizational sizes. Process manufacturers are defined as those where the production process adds value by mixing, separating, forming, or chemical reaction. In this study this year, this sector includes manufacturers of chemicals, metals, plastics, films, glass, building materials, carpet, and other process materials. It also includes food processing plants and dairies.

Chapter 12 provides benchmarks for pharmaceutical and medical device organizations, across all organizational sizes. Respondents in this sector this year include manufacturers of branded and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, biologics, biotech products, in vitro diagnostics, optical products, durable medical equipment, and various other types of medical devices. The medical device organizations that are included in the sample for this chapter were also included in the discrete manufacturing sector (Chapter 10), and the pharmaceutical companies were included in the process manufacturing sector (Chapter 11).

Chapter 13 provides benchmarks for wholesale distribution companies, across all organizational sizes. Respondents in this sector this year include wholesale distributors of computer equipment, semiconductors, electronic components, industrial supplies, auto parts, office equipment, medical products, consumer goods, and cosmetics.

Chapter 14 provides benchmarks for retail organizations, across all organizational sizes. Respondents in this sector this year include retailers of automobiles, home furnishings, sporting equipment, specialty foods, apparel, hardware, general merchandise, and other items. This sector also includes discount retailers.

Chapter 15 provides benchmarks for utilities and energy companies, across all organizational sizes. The utilities and energy sector in the study this year includes oil and gas exploration and services, pipeline operators, power generators, electrical utilities, gas utilities, and telecommunications utilities.

Chapter 16 provides benchmarks for business services firms, across all organizational sizes. The business services sector in the study this year includes professional services firms, such as accounting firms, law firms, and consulting organizations; software developers; trade associations; brokerage services; technical services firms; and other companies that provide services to other businesses.

Chapter 17 provides benchmarks for government organizations, across all organizational sizes. Respondents in this sector this year include municipal governments, state government agencies, and federal government organizations.

The benchmarks provided in this chapter are the same as for Chapter 2 (Composite Benchmarks), except that recruiting metrics are not reported.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c39637 Source: Computer Economics