EMA conducted four research studies during Q4 2010 with over 400 respondents in total. While the topics of these studies varied from two cloud computing topics and two asset management topics, we always include a standard set of demographic questions and budget questions. I asked our Survey Production & Research Analytics Manager, Sylvia Rimmington, to combine the budgetary data from these four studies into a single analysis and compare this data with similar data from Q4 2009.
The respondents surveyed in Q4 2010 worked in IT departments with budgets of varying sizes from less than one million to more than 100 million dollars.
The Q4 2010 data showed that only 17% of the 404 respondents had their budgets decrease while 25% were staying the same. 59% had budgets increasing with the most common increase between 10% and 25%.
IT budgets are increasing in all regions with 100% of respondents in Central & South America seeing their budgets increase.
When comparing Q4 2009 data with Q4 2010 data, you can see the swing from more budgets decreasing in Q4 2009 to more budgets increasing in Q4 2010.
While the economy seemed to fall off a cliff in mid 2008 with a prolonged recession during 2009, this data shows the turning tide for IT spending in 2011. Even though the recovery is slow, uneven, and with little recovery in the general job market, IT spending in anticipation of a more robust recovery seems to be underway.