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By Andy McCue, 23 January 2006 16:00

NEWS

IT departments face increasing boardroom pressure in 2006 to contribute to business growth, improve competitiveness and increase efficiency, according to Gartner.

Gartner's annual survey of 1,400 CIOs in 30 countries found that business process improvement is the top priority for the next 12 months, followed closely by controlling operating costs, growing customer relationships and improving competitive advantage.

Boardroom executives now expect IT to become more externally focused and play a significant role in business growth, a shift that will accelerate during 2006 according to Gartner.

Marcus Blosch, VP and research director at Gartner Executive Programs, said in the report: "The survey results make it very clear that business expectations of IT have changed dramatically and executives are expecting their CIOs to move beyond concerns about cost, security and quality to help grow the business."

But CIOs are still faced with having to do more with less and a continued budget squeeze means cost-cutting and improving operating efficiencies will remain a high priority for IT chiefs in 2006.

The Gartner survey found that worldwide IT budgets are expected to increase by an average of just 2.7 per cent in 2006, compared to a 2.5 per cent increase last year. For high-growth companies, however, the average IT budget increase is expected to be 4.8 per cent this year.

The top technology priorities CIOs highlighted for 2006 include business intelligence applications, security technologies, mobile workforce enablement and collaboration tools. In particular, spending on security-related tools will remain healthy with a projected increase of 4.5 per cent.

Building IT business skills was also highlighted as a key task by almost three-quarters of the survey respondents with increased demand for management disciplines such as relationship and sourcing, process design and information design.