While spending in many technology areas will remain flat in 2012, about half of IT decision makers expect their IT budgets will increase next year as mobile and cloud continue to drive the bulk of expenses.

However, the IT budget outlook is more encouraging for enterprise organizations than it is for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), according to the most recent CIO Tech Poll: Economic Outlook.

In fact, the IT budget variance between enterprise and SMB organizations shows 66 percent of enterprises plan to increase mobile/wireless budgets compared to 46 percent of SMB, and 65 percent of enterprises will grow applications budgets compared to 39 percent of SMB. 

Mobile and wireless, outsourced IT services – including cloud – and applications had the largest number of respondents increasing budgets since April 2012. The study, which is conducted twice a year among heads of IT to gauge technology areas that are the focus of IT, was done through the CIO Forum on LinkedIn (News - Alert) and the CIO customer database.

Results are based on 188 respondents who indicated they are the top IT executive at their company or business unit.

While the research reveals budget increases, it is specific technology categories that are seeing growth, according to CIO vice president and publisher, Adam Dennison.

“To meet business priorities and stay aligned with technology transformation, mobile/wireless, outsourced IT services and apps are receiving a larger percentage of the budget increases,” Dennison said in a statement. “Enterprises are in a race to grow revenue and exceed customer expectations, which can be met through technology innovation and implementation of mobile to enhance customer experience.”

In addition, the majority of IT leaders (70 percent) said they believe that organizations that implement tablets are significantly/somewhat more likely to also adopt edge technologies (cloud, social, mobile) sooner than organizations not adopting tablets. Over the next year, top business priorities include overall revenue growth (81 percent), addressing the rising expectations of customers (78 percent), acquiring and retaining customers (72 percent) and improving the quality of products and services (71 percent).

Mobile and wireless (56 percent), applications (52 percent), IT compensation (48 percent) and outsourced IT services areas (including cloud) (43 percent) are all seeing budget increases. The survey indicated enterprise organizations are seeing even more growth in mobile/wireless (66 percent), applications (65 percent) and outsourced IT services including cloud (49 percent).

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