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by Jeff Moad, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Friday, November 03, 2006 3:10:08 PM   | Abstract: | Manufacturers are struggling with balancing soaring demand for tech resources with tight tech budgets. What should management do? The answer: Spend only on technologies that truly support the business. |
After enduring several consecutive years of slow- or no-growth IT budgets, IT managers at manufacturing companies could perhaps be forgiven for believing that competition for limited IT resources is about as intense as it could get. But they're wrong. Pressure for a fresh, new wave of IT spending is growing, stimulated by a collection of forces ranging from regulatory compliance to globalization. Not that IT budgets are being increased nearly enough to allow IT managers to meet all of those looming demands. Most manufacturing organizations continue to keep a tight lid on IT spending, a habit many acquired following the Y2K-inspired tech spending splurge of the late 1990s that was followed, painfully, by a manufacturing recession. While observers such as AMR Research Inc. (Boston) say IT budgets in 2005 are increasing by an average of 7.4%, many manufacturers are keeping the pressure on CIOs to suppress any budget increases. SLUGGISH SPENDING
Managing Automation's latest IT spending survey, for example, shows 38% of manufacturing companies held IT spending flat this year, compared to 33% who said the same last year. [Click to continue] |