IT Managers Were Skittish Even Before Attacks

IT managers' confidence in the overall economy and the future of IT investment was flagging badly even before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. InformationWeek Research's most-recent quarterly IT Confidence Index, released Monday, indicates technology spending has fallen almost 33% since the beginning of the year. "Economic activity has been slowing down since the beginning of the year, so lower confidence would have happened regardless of what occurred on Sept. 11," says Ralph Kauffman, a purchasing program coordinator and an assistant professor of management at the University of Houston-Downtown.

According to the survey, even before the attacks, 87% of 300 IT professionals surveyed listed network security among their companies' technology priorities, ranking it second behind PCs, which were named by 91% of the survey respondents. Further, one-third of respondents said their companies had stopped or suspended IT projects, and only one-third had a positive outlook for their IT budgets, compared with almost half who felt positive at the beginning of the year. "We continue to increase our IT commitment, but we'll not take any bold, giant initiatives until we see where the economy is heading," says Michael Wilens, president of legal publisher West Group.

The tense economic situation creates an environment in which even small IT projects face intense scrutiny over whether they can be delayed or cut. "We're facing a lot more questioning on smaller-price-tag projects right now," says Rory McClure, a technology director at Pentacon Inc., a $283.7 million distributor of fasteners.

Norbert Ore, group director of strategic sourcing and procurement at paper and lumber manufacturer Georgia-Pacific Corp., sees the emotional effects of the attacks dominating the economy today. But Ore, who also chairs the survey committee that oversees the widely followed Purchasing Manager Index published monthly by the National Association of Procurement Managers, is confident businesses can rebound. "We've survived other major events, and we'll survive this one," he says. "We'll wind up being a little stronger because of it."