PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE FROM JUDY HOMER, PRESIDENT OF JB HOMER ASSOCIATES SURVEY RESULTS ON THE DIRECTION OF IT STRATEGIC PLANS FOR 2011

February 9, 2011 - New York, NY - JB Homer Associates recently surveyed over 3250 global technology leaders for their feedback on their strategic plans for their IT organizations for this year.

Overall we found the survey results to be uniformly positive, reinforcing the prevailing feeling that the economic recovery has gained traction in that the responses indicate that IT organizations have taken a step away from cost cutting and downsizing and are now at the very least stabilized as many respondents indicate they and their organizations are moving in an increasingly positive direction.

I'd like to share some of the survey results:
44% of the respondents have received an increase in their funding for this year, and another 34% have managed to keep their funding unchanged. This seems to indicate that the vast majority of the respondents have been given a vote of confidence by their business leadership in support of their IT strategic plans for 2011.

In terms of organizational change 38% of the respondents plan to add to their IT organization and another 40% have indicated that they have no plans at this time to downsize or outsource staff. With a mere 22% of the respondents indicating they will be streamlining their organization this seems to be a positive indicator that IT organizations across all industry verticals have been performing well and are now poised for growth as their respective businesses start to benefit from a more robust national and global economy.

The top deliverables for this year were by a significant margin the completion of the existing IT roadmap as indicated by 57% of the respondents, and rationalization of the Infrastructure and the applications portfolio. IT leaders are results focused, and seem to be moving to a leaner, cost sensitive delivery model as they continue to meet the changing needs of their business partners.

One of the most heartening responses was that majority of the IT leaders responding to the survey plan to either keep their Direct Reports in their current roles (48% of respondents) or promote them (44% of respondents) - indicating that these leaders not only appreciate the efforts that have been made over the past year by their team members under difficult economic circumstances, but plan to acknowledge and reward them for their efforts.

While this survey may have been a non scientific sampling I think that we can all be enthusiastic about the fact that the economic recovery seems to have now gained some definite traction as demonstrated by companies' willingness to financially support the efforts of their IT organizations, and this may be a good sign that we may all be sharing the benefits of a much better year in 2011.