Indian CIOs to invest 20% more in IT in FY14: Zinnov

Telecom to see 26%, retail 18% rise in IT spending

Chief information officers (CIOs) in India are expected to increase their IT investments at an average of 20% in FY13-14 as compared to last financial year. The preferred verticals will also be manufacturing, telecom, retail, healthcare and pharmaceutical for IT investments,  according to a recent  Zinnov study.

According to the study, the manufacturing sector is expected to see a 29% increase in absolute IT budget for the next financial year, followed by telecom and retail which are expected to see an increase of 26 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively. And the banking and financial services industries (BFSI) will see a 4 per cent increase.

Praveen Bhadada, director (market expansion), Zinnov, said, “With $30 billion already in IT investments in India, this is a very positive sentiment coming out from Indian IT decision makers. India is now starting to gain strategic importance as a market for IT solutions globally. With the macro-economic environment improving, we believe IT vendors will see a better business opportunity."

The IT outsourcing by Indian CIOs are on the rise, as currently, 59 per cent of IT staff is outsourced to third party service providers. And two-third of the surveyed enterprises showed interest towards investing in modern IT solutions such as cloud, big data and mobility, the study says.

Zinnov, a market expansion and globalisation advisory firm, has conducted the study with more than 50 IT decision makers from across industries including banking, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail and travel.  The report titled 'IT priorities of Indian CIOs for FY2013-14' analysed their priorities for IT investments on various parameters such as verticals of investment, size of enterprises, and the budgets on outsourcing.