Gartner: IT Still Spending Below Budget

IT leaders in the United States continue to hold tightly to the purse strings, spending below their budgets for the third month in a row.

According to a Gartner Inc, survey of 20,000 members, IT decision makers spent 87 percent of their budgets in May. This past March, IT spent even less — 83 percent of its budget. That numbered rebounded slightly to 89 percent in April, before showing another drop in May.

Gartner analysts blame the March numbers on the war with Iraq and the outbreak of SARS. April started to show a spending recovery, but analysts say ‘weak business conditions’ overpowered post-war optimism, dragging May’s numbers back down.

”Weak business conditions continue to hold IT spending slightly below budget and we see no indications of a June recovery,” says David Hankin, senior vice president and general manager of Gartner. ”As vendors begin to report earnings at the end of the quarter, we’ll see this erosion in planned spending within the market reflected in their numbers.”

The analyst firm reports that the survey included IT leaders from small, mid-sized and large enterprises. The survey was done as part of Gartner’s monthly economic indicator tracking.