"We have what I call an attention deficit disorder in IT," he said. "It's now becoming clear that the macro economy is starting to thaw, but the real question for 2004 will be where enterprises spend their IT budgets."
That, he concluded, is still unclear, for as more money is freed up by management, it's not always the next item on last year's list that will, or should, be funded.
"Trying to predict spending based on IT managers' wish lists is like predicting the toy market from kids' letters to Santa," he said.
Instead, it will take time for increasing spending trends to sort themselves out, for companies will be taking a fresh look at last year's wish list of unfunded projects, revamping those lists, and even coming up with new projects necessary to take advantage of the heating economy.
"Business plans change," he said. And that's something not even Forrester can predict.
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