In tight times, IT managers more likely to postpone than cancel a project

Matt Hamblen quotes a study conducted by Gartner revealing only 12% of administrators of 475 large corporations had canceled projects. Instead, they preferred to postpone the project or scale it back.

The Gartner survey reported that 29% of the IT managers surveyed had postponed one or more projects and 33% had scaled back one or more projects without altering their implementation dates. 43% of the surveyed respondents said they expected to see some reduction in spending on laptops and desktops in their organizations. Previous surveys by Gartner show respondents expect to see a 3.7% drop in IT spending in 2009 while expecting a 2.4% increase in 2010.

The surveys analyst, Andrew Johnson, predicts that IT managers will explore alternatives to laptops and desktops, such as smartphones, that are less expensive. While smartphones may be a practical alternative for some mobile users, Johnson doesn’t foresee the smartphone replacing laptops for some time to come. Smartphones offer users a wide range of functionality which duplicates the functionality available with laptops or desktops. Functions such as web browsers, enterprise applications, and e-mail, are now available on smartphones. Smartphones also offer surprisingly powerful processors.

Outlooks on IT spending varied widely based on the country of origin. While 29% of IT managers in the United States predicted no reduction in the level of IT spending or the number of projects, only 18% of IT managers in France predicted no reduction. 85% of surveyed IT managers in China thought there would be no reduction and 64% of the managers in India predicted no reduction. Overall, 48% of the IT managers surveyed predicted no reduction in spending or the number of projects.

There were also differences in survey results depending upon the type of industry responding. Overall, the survey found that insurance, media, and customer service industries were most likely to maintain their level of spending on laptop and desktop rollouts. The industries most likely to reduce spending in this area were telecommunications, wholesale, agriculture, mining and construction. Retail and utilities industries were the most likely to cancel projects outright, while the financial services segment were the least likely to cancel.