I was disturbed by the interpretation of the survey data, with no offense intended to Bob Suh or Laurie.

On the comparison to China:
The US IT market has a 20 or 30-year lead on IT-maturity over China - not superiority, but experience in the industry. As a comparative newcome, of course China will outspend the west on new technology - China has far less legacy in place, (hence most purchases are new) and is growing in ways the west can't. CIOs (wherever they reside) should not try to keep pace with China's spending, nor covet the title of / "top techology spender".

On the assumption that new equates to better:
IT has had ample opportunities over the years to realize that new is new, better is better, but new isn't necessarily better, and better isn't necessarily new. I take it as good news that the focus of CIOs is in this study not on retaining the top position in technology spend. CIOs, I suspect are focused on the business, and leveraging all that they already own to serve the needs of the business. When technology fails (to deliver business value) CIOs should replace it. As Laurie suggests - CIOs should spend money on Wikis, Web 2.0 and other new technology that will increase business. However, advice to toss it all away and buy new isn't realistic for many firms. Comments that impli that US CIOs must regain the "top technology spender" mantle is simply not responsible.

What should drive IT spending behavior?
If the survey intends to serve the interests of businesses and CIOs, the ensuing advice would stress balance - replace what you must, reuse what you can, but make sure it all works together to the best interests of the business - not technology vendors' balance sheets.

Laurie

For a potential reason why American CIOs may be right, it's worth looking at what some Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists and computer-industry executives now consider to be 'emerging technologies'.

I'd recommend anyone exploring the question you've raised to read an article entitled "From Geeks to Greens" (February 28th, www.economist.com). Its subtitle paints the picture: "Executives are switching in their droves from the computer industry to clean technology firms".

Now, one article is not cast-iron evidence of a trend, but this one presents a scenario that it's worth every CIO considering.

If what primarily contitutes 'emerging technologies' - which for a long time has been IT - is now shifting to environmental technologies, what does that mean for the corporate strategy that the CIO is leading, and the role of CIO itself?

IT is undoubtedly the backbone of commerce, so it's not about to lost its strategic value and importance. I also agree with your observation that the on-the-ground energy for exploiting IT to create value is increasingly coming from the people who use it, not the IT specialists.

However, IT may have to increasingly share the limelight - and investment - with a new kid on the block in terms of what constitutes 'emerging technologies'.

The article I've referred to explores whether those computer executives making the switch to environmental technologies have what it takes to succeed. Good question, to which only time will provide an answer...

Chris

Too much spent in keep the lights on dollars, including plenty with Accenture.

Here's my challenge to Accenture to free up more money for innovation

http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2008/03/my-challenge-to.html

Software as it currently exists is quite literally on its way out and a lot of enterprise media has not quite caught on to that fact yet.

New tools that allow enterprise applications to be built without a programmer in a tiny fraction of the time a programmer would take are becoming more and more common. Although Enterprise Mash ups have caught some attention lately they offer limited results and don't even begin to scratch the surface of the kinds of returns that you can get from a platform like Iceberg for example.

We are seeing CIOs build their own applications in less time than it would take them to explain what they need to their IT department.

The major jump here is making these browser based no-code application platforms available INSIDE the enterprise so that they can be run on their own server behind the firewall. This is something that Iceberg does as a key feature and users can use it for teams of up to 5 people totally free.