Downturn raised corporate reliance on IT to survive: Accenture - EIU

A majority (72 per cent) of business and information technology (IT) executives executives say their organisations place greater value on the IT function today than they did before the economic crisis.

What's more, they view IT as an important part of their economic recovery efforts, according to the findings of a global study released today by gloabl consulting firm Accenture and produced in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Consequently, executives expect technology spending to increase in their organisation either selectively (47 per cent) or across the board (10 per cent) in the next 12 months.

Further, and perhaps surprisingly, non-IT executives appear even more bullish than those directly responsible for IT, as 61 per cent anticipate technology spending boosts.

To gauge how companies' attitudes toward technology investment in different parts of the business have changed in response to the global financial and economic crisis and to explore how investment may evolve over the next 12 months, the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 557 senior executives from a wide range of industries in August and September 2009.

The survey was conducted in the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The survey sample was senior leaders, with 55 per cent of respondents being C-level executives such as CIOs, CFOs and CEOs.