FRAMINGHAM, MA--(Marketwire - Dec 20, 2012) - IDG's CIO, the executive-level IT media brand providing insight into business technology leadership, reveals the CIO Tech Poll: Economic Outlook results for November 2012. As 2013 approaches, half of the IT head respondents anticipate that their IT budget will increase in the coming year and the outlook is more encouraging for enterprise organizations (1,000+ employees). While spending in many technology areas is forecasted to remain flat -- especially for SMB organizations ( < 1,000 employees) -- mobile/wireless, outsourced IT services (including cloud) and applications had the largest number of respondents increasing budgets since April 2012; aligning with CIO's current technology trend discussions.

The IT budget variance between enterprise and SMB organizations shows 66% of enterprises plan to increase mobile/wireless budgets compared to 46% of SMB, and 65% of enterprises will grow applications budgets compared to 39% of SMB. To execute on projects aligned with the growing budgets, IT headcount and IT compensation will increase or remain the same in the coming year. Approximately one-third of enterprise organizations plan to decrease budget allocations for hardware (34%) and network infrastructure (26%) investments. This decrease in spending can be attributed to investments in lower cost hardware products, like tablets, and network initiatives moving into the cloud.

Technology continues to transform business and IT leaders are investing in tools to enable business process through innovation. The majority of IT leaders (70%) believe that organizations that implement tablets are significantly/somewhat more likely to also adopt edge technologies (cloud, social, mobile) sooner than organizations not adopting tablets. Over the next year, top business priorities include overall revenue growth (81%), addressing the rising expectations of customers (78%), acquiring and retaining customers (72%) and improving the quality of products and services (71%). IT departments are preparing for these priorities; in fact one-third of new IT spending will be allocated to projects that directly impact topline revenue. Critical and high priority IT initiatives include improving the use of data and analytics for business decisions (64%), improving IT project delivery performance (62%) and developing new skills to better support emerging technologies and business innovation (49%).

"While the research reveals budget increases, it is specific technology categories that are seeing growth. To meet business priorities and stay aligned with technology transformation, mobile/wireless, outsourced IT services and apps are receiving a larger percentage of the budget increases," said Adam Dennison, vice president/publisher, CIO. "Enterprises are in a race to grow revenue and exceed customer expectations, which can be met through technology innovation and implementation of mobile to enhance customer experience."

Opinions on the global economy vary for the coming year. Respondents believe that the outlook is excellent/good for Asia Pacific (55%), South America (46%) and the United States (38%) whereas half of respondents (46%) find Europe's outlooks to be poor, and one-quarter (24%) believe Middle East & Africa to have a poor outlook. These opinions, especially for Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa, vary based on the respondent's location. This gauge is telling, especially for the 54% of organizations that conduct business in more than one country.

Key findings include:

• IT investment continues to increase for 51% of organizations in the next year, compared to 32% in August 2011.
• Mobile/wireless (56%), applications (52%), IT compensation (48%) and outsourced IT services (including cloud) (43%) are all seeing budget increases. Enterprise organizations are seeing even more growth in mobile/wireless (66%), applications (65%) and outsourced IT services (including cloud) (49%).
• IT leaders believe that organizations that implement tablet usage are significantly/somewhat more likely to adopt cloud, social and mobile technologies than non-tablet using organizations.
• Growing company revenue is the number one priority for organizations in the next year and improving the use of data and analytics for business decisions is the top IT priority.
• Asia Pacific is viewed as the region with the highest excellent/good outlook for the coming year, followed by South America and the United States.

IT decision-makers and solution providers are invited to discuss edge technologies, like mobile, BYOD, social, apps and more at the 2013 CITE (Consumerization In The Enterprise) Conference + Expo,  June 2-4, 2013 in San Francisco, CA to help them prepare to capitalize on the IT growth areas.

To review the full research results or learn more about CITE Conference + Expo sponsorship opportunities, contact Adam Dennison, vice president & publisher, CIO at adennison@cio.com.

About CIO Tech Poll: Economic Outlook
The CIO Tech Poll: Economic Outlook study is conducted twice a year, among heads of IT, to gauge which technology areas are the focus of IT in the coming year and to measure the direction of spending within those areas. The current CIO Tech Poll: Economic Outlook was conducted between October 24, 2012 and November 18, 2012 through the CIO Forum on LinkedIn and the CIO customer database. Results are based on 188 respondents who indicated they are the top IT executive at their company or business unit.

About CIO
CIO is the premier content and community resource for information technology executives and leaders thriving and prospering in this fast-paced era of IT transformation in the enterprise. The award-winning CIO portfolio -- CIO.com, CIO magazine (launched in 1987), CIO executive programs, CIO custom solutions, CIO Forum on LinkedIn, CIO Executive Council and CIO primary research -- provides business technology leaders with analysis and insight on information technology trends and a keen understanding of IT's role in achieving business goals. Additionally, CIO provides opportunities for IT solution providers to reach this executive IT audience. The CIO Executive Council is a professional organization of CIOs created to serve as an unbiased and trusted peer advisory group. CIO is published by IDG Enterprise, a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, events, and research company. Company information is available at http://www.idgenterprise.com/.