Testing a theory

Here’s my theory. During the economy’s downturn, many companies were cutting corners, curtailing non-essential initiatives, and driving more efficiency from their IT infrastructures and organizations – all while overall investments in management tools lagged. As IT kept on economizing, or doing without, even though business requirements continued to move forward, my theory is that this has created a situation where there is pent-up demand within IT organizations.

As an example, during the past few years, there was an increase in the amount of time that companies used desktops and laptops before replacing them. IT organizations were not upgrading some of their technology as quickly as they had been doing previously. The same may have been true for upgrades of operating systems or software.

Did this create pent-up demand for management tools? When more funds are available, would they invest in these areas that were “put on hold”?

There have been surveys that have explored where IT intends to make investments in the near term. Security is one area, fueled by compliance issues, as well as the pesky worms and viruses that have been regularly causing disruptions of one kind or another. However, are there areas of security where investment was delayed, thus causing a situation of pent-up demand? Or have companies been biting the bullet, and just buying the security tools that they need?

So I’ve told you my theory, and I’d like to test it out. I’d like to hear from you, our readers, to see if this pent-up demand for management tools exists. Please help me to test my theory and let me know if your organization has built up demand for management tools because of delayed replacement, investment or repair. Send me e-mail at mailto:arasmussen@enterprisemanagement.com with the subject line “Testing the theory” and your responses to the following questions:

What are the areas where this demand has been building up? Please prioritize the areas of pent-up demand, in order of importance.

When the budget is available, what are the kinds of tools your IT organization will invest in again?

What’s the timeframe that you see this pent-up demand being addressed, and when do you anticipate it being satisfied?

Are you just waiting for more budget when you can do it all, or are you chipping away at this problem a little bit at a time?

If I receive enough responses from our readers, I’ll share the results in a future article. I’m curious to see if IT organizations tended to delay their investment in similar things, or disparate areas, and to see where IT organizations are today. So please write. As always, if I do write an article on the reader responses, I won’t reveal your identity or the identity of your company, I’ll just compile the responses.