Indian IT Inc shows the strongest IT budget growth in 2007 at 61 per cent as against six per cent in 2006, according to Forrester Research Inc’s latest industry trends on the actual technology spending initiatives in the Asia Pacific and Japan region.

In this Analyst Update presentation on “The Coming Era of Business Technology” at the HP Asia Pacific Enterprise Media Summit 2007, in Singapore, on Wednesday, Forrester Research Senior Vice President Christopher Mines said in comparison, Japan spent the least at 23 per cent down from 27 per cent in 2006.

He also made a case for corporates need to make a paradigm shift from an Information Technology (IT) approach to Business Technology (BT) approach in order to address the disconnect between Chief Information Officers and Chief Executive Officers in an organisation. Following are the compelling reasons for the shift from IT to BT:

*Technology is pervasive in enterprise operations – and should be central to enterprise strategy
*Business outcomes depend on how well technology capabilities are exploited
*Technology management can not remain isolated from business management
*IT organizations must shift from an inward to an outward focus. 
Pointing out that in nearly a third of the organisations surveyed did not see IT as a source of innovation and as a pro-active source of business innovation, Mr Mines said this was due to the low expectations from IT by the CEOs who were satisfied with the IT’s performance in their organisations.
Stating CIOs are struggling to make IT a major player in the business strategy and business results of organisations, Mr Mines said, it was time IT organisations must step up from IT efficiency to BT innovation and mooted the five point strategy wherein CIOs can close the gap with the CEOs. The five point initiative Forrester study advocates for CIOs are: ensure there is a control spending on infrastructure and operations to free up investment for new initiatives.
Raise IT’s corporate stature by demonstrating tight linkage between IT strategy and business strategy and results.

Growth strategy
Put IT at the center of business innovation in the corporation overall growth strategy. Get the word out about BT’s mission, values, and successes in the broader spectrum of the corporate ladder and above all go green while driving cost savings by reducing environmental impacts of IT purchasing and operations.
Mines also advocated that CIOs ensured improvement in the ratio of IT maintenance spending versus overall IT budget and count the technology-enabled elements in new products, processes and markets.