Enterprises are planning to increase IT budgets in order to benefit from technology-driven efficiencies, according to a new survey.

The most popular new technologies to invest in are set to be virtualisation, e-business systems and service-oriented architecture, claimed the research.

Businesses in the UK and Ireland are the most optimistic, with 63 per cent expecting a higher spend, with the US, Spain and Italy only just behind. The survey was conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

Interestingly, more than three-quarters of executives now use either financial, productivity or progress metrics to measure the performance and benefits of their technology investments.  However, only 27 per cent of IT executives use a specific methodology or governance framework to assess the business impact of their IT investments. A final third of companies still use no metrics at all.

The survey of 557 senior executives was conducted by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

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