Welcome Back: Now Start Spending

If you paid attention to the year-end stories on the TechWeb sites, you may have noticed a sort-of shared optimism for a recovery in the IT market for 2004. The unwritten kicker is the holiday bill that now comes due: It's time to start spending.

Didn't know that you were responsible for the nation's economic health, did you? (At the very least, it's another reason to run by the CFO when you submit your budget requests.)

While many groups, political and otherwise, will try to take credit for the predicted business rebound, in the IT arena much of the spending is likely to be generated by simple upgrading and replacement needs spurred by the past few years of fiscal abstinence.

New technologies and services that offer business advantages (like VoIP and Wi-Fi) are also likely to open some corporate wallets. Of course, none of this means that there will be a return to the spending frenzy of the last decade; IT professionals are simply smarter these days.

Cost Savings Drive VoIP DeploymentEven if spending does increase, a lot of it will be value-driven, meaning that customers armed with knowledge will be seeking more for less, in all avenues. In last week's Voting Booth (where we asked, "What is the ROI driver behind your VoIP deployment?"), just more than 50 percent of the respondents answered "cost savings," a clear indication that many purchases will be made with savings in mind.

In this week's Voting Booth, we're asking when your next spending might take place: Tomorrow, next week, or a few months down the road? Go back to the home page, scroll down a bit and cast your vote, which costs nothing... for now.