Execs Surveyed Insist Too Little Is Spent On IT

Almost half of senior corporate executives believe their companies are spending too little on IT this year, a survey released Monday showed.

Interviews with 230 U.S. executives showed that 46 percent believed their companies weren't spending enough on IT, compared to 10 percent who said too much was being spent and 44 percent who said spending was just about right, said Managed Objects, a McLean, Va.-based, business service management company that commissioned the survey.

The survey indicated that senior executives were not as stingy with IT budgets as their reputations suggest, and many of them saw the value of technology in their businesses, Managed Objects chief executive Siki Giunta said.

Executives who believed IT departments were overspending were nearly twice as likely as IT managers to look toward reducing or reallocating staff as the primary way to reduce costs. While executives believed reducing manpower would have the most impact on the company's bottom line, IT managers believed reducing IT downtime would have a greater impact.

While some results from the survey were released Monday, the full study, called "Measuring and Optimizing the Cost of IT: A Progress Report," would be released in April.