Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

It is hard to think of the business software and hardware infrastructure without thinking about the people in IT that support it all. You don't see them much until you need them, but when you need them you REALLY need them! There is a new report out from Goldman Sachs, based on interviews with corporate CIOs, that we may see fewer IT folks around during the coming year, which could be a very bad thing when we need them.

The study finds that the demand for IT personnel is the lowest in the forty-one year history of this executive survey. A companion survey indicates that these same CIOs plan to spend less money on new hardware and software this year, as well. It looks like the watchword of the year is economy rather than technology. These surveys combine to show a bleak picture of investment in technology in the coming year, and it was warned that hardware, software and service companies should look at the report as an early warning of a less than stellar 2009.

In the details of the report, it was noted that the companies would be paring many more contractors than direct company employees. While about 15% of respondents project that they will cut employees, almost half think that they will cut contractors. All told, our worsening economy looks like it will be taking a serious toll on IT spending.