Nearly 60 percent of CIOs anticipate increasing their software spending through the rest of 2006, while only 33 percent expect spending to remain flat and 2 percent expect a decrease in spending. Those are the results of a new survey by Merrill Lynch analysts, who released their results on Aug. 16 in a report called “July ‘06 Survey of Software Spending Intentions.” The survey questioned 100 CIOs in North America during July 2006, about software spending and purchases. Of those surveyed, 59 percent were from companies with $1 billion or more in revenue, and the rest worked at small and midsize businesses.

Of those CIOs who were questioned in the survey, many (88 percent) said that issues such as inflation and higher interest rates will not deter future spending on software during the year. A similar survey in April 2006 found only 47 percent of CIOs intended to increase spending. The top spending priorities were business intelligence and data warehousing. Thirty-eight percent of CIOs spend 20 percent or more of their IT budgets on software.