The Recession in the USA and its effect on IT

This is an article from cio.com
http://cio.com/article/453470/IT_Budgets_Frozen_by_Recession_Survey_Show...
 

IT Budgets Frozen by Recession, Survey Shows
The recent economic crisis has many IT leaders tightening their belts and preparing for sparse spending in the coming months.
 

By Denise Dubie

October 08, 2008
—
Network World
— Despite earlier plans to boost budgets in 2009, the recent economic
crisis has many IT leaders tightening their belts and preparing for
sparse spending in the coming months. (See a slideshow of what the economic rescue package could buy.)
Back
in June, the Society for Information Management (SIM) polled more than
300 IT executives about their plans for IT spending in 2009 and this
week released results that showed 44% planned for bigger budgets and
43% intended to increase staffing. Three-quarters of those polled also
expected to see IT staff salaries increase in 2009. (Watch a slideshow of which Wall Street "fat cats" will be fine despite the economic crisis.)
"Budget
and headcount forecasts remained strong, despite the fact that economic
conditions were weakening at the time the survey was taken," said Jerry
Luftman, SIM vice president for academic affairs and Distinguished
Professor and Associate Dean at the Stevens Institute, in a SIM press
release.
Yet a more recent tally from the CIO Executive Board
revealed strikingly different spending plans. The late September survey
of some 50 CIOs by the association for IT executives showed that more
than half of those polled have put nonessential projects on hold and
about one-fourth have decided to freeze IT hiring. And 61 percent of
those surveyed admitted they were re-evaluating their 2009 budgets.
John
Turner, director of network and systems at Brandeis University in
Waltham, Mass., says his IT budget has been directly impacted by the
current economic crisis.
"Our operating expenditure budgets have
been frozen and cut, and we currently have a hiring freeze in effect,"
Turner reports. "There is an obvious direct financial impact to our
institution when there is this amount of uncertainty in the market."

Other stories by Denise Dubie © 2007 Network World Inc.