European, U.S. firms trailing Asian companies on new IT spending

A research study commissioned by AT&T (NYSE: T) and carried out by international business school INSEAD found that Asian companies are spending their IT budgets more aggressively on new technologies than their European and U.S. counterparts, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The study focused on how much of their IT budgets corporate enterprises in different regions are spending on new technologies--mobile Internet devices, cloud services and collaboration tools, for example--as opposed to expenses for more traditional hardware and enterprise software.

The report states that by 2015, Asian companies on average will be spending about 30 percent of their IT budgets on mobile technologies, up from about 12 percent in 2010. Cloud investments will climb to 31 percent of budgeted money, from 17 percent in 2010, and collaboration tools will account for 26 percent of budgeted spending by Asian firms in 2013, up from 18 percent in 2010. The report noted, however, that some of these technology areas could overlap, as a single expense could end up being classified as both mobile and cloud-related, for example.

New technology spending by European companies was seen as lagging behind that of Asian companies, and North American companies are perceived as being even slower than companies in the other two regions to spend IT budgets on new technologies.

Willingness to spend on cutting edge technology does not tell the whole story, of course. The study noted that companies investing in the newest solutions also need an infrastructure foundation and platforms to support and integrate those technologies throughout their organizations.

For more:
- read this Financial Times story (sub. req.)

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