Survey to ITs: Put Money Where Your Modem Is

By Gail Repsher, Staff Writer


AUG. 1 ? Leading-edge adopters of technology spend an average of 11 percent of revenue on information technology, or about $17,500 per employee, according to a survey conducted by Stamford, Conn., consulting firm GartnerGroup Inc.


Mainstream adopters of technology spend an average of 5 percent of revenue on IT, or an average of $21,000 per employee. Conservative adopters spend an average of 3 percent of revenue on IT, or about $11,000 per employee, according to the survey, which was released July 31.


"If an enterprise is a conservative adopter of technology but its strategy is to become a mainstream adopter, it must increase IT spending by at least 160 percent," said Kurt Potter, a research director in GartnerGroup's Business Management of IT group. "If an enterprise plans to move from being a mainstream adopter of technology to a leading-edge adopter, it will have to spend 220 percent more on IT."


The 2000 Gartner IT Spending and Staffing Survey included 510 enterprises worldwide. Survey participants averaged $1.6 billion in revenue and 6,200 employees.