Report Highlights Meager Budget Increases for CIOs in LATAM

Corporate companies in Latin America have set aside relatively little money to spend on technology this year, with CIOs remaining cautious about new expenses, according to a survey by market research firm Gartner.

The research firm said it found only an 0.4% increase in the IT budgets of LATAM firms. Chinese CIOs, in contrast, are increasing their budgets by 8.5%, way above the global average of 1.1%.

What is unique for Latin America is that more than 50% of companies in the region are choosing between buying infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and moving their servers to the Cloud. A few of them are even mulling investing in the public Cloud.

The meager increase in IT budgets, Gartner says, could also suggest that companies are freeing up cash to spend on new technologies that might be necessary to scale up operational capacity.

Nearly 25% of LATAM CIOs have talked of purchasing mobile applications, with companies increasingly believing that the smartphone is the best vehicle for reaching out to customers. “Investments in mobile applications are increasingly becoming the first priority when enhancing or designing new applications,” the report noted.

Global economic uncertainty and some geopolitical issues are pdisuading many CIOs from taking bold steps about technology investment. CIOs in the United States have reported IT budget increases of 0.9% with Gartner saying that only one in eight CIOs there is likely to decrease their IT budget.

U.S. firms will continue to increase investments in Cloud, mobility, social and big data, but they do not appear to be in a hurry to put money on disruptive smart technologies such as robotics and thinking machines, according to the report.