At Irving, Texas-based Flowserve, a provider of flow control productsand services, Vice President and CIO Rory MacDowell says it's tooearly to tell what his 2003 spending will be. However, he knows thatthree of the top priorities will be integration (including a plannedCRM project), standardization (hardware and software platforms, toolsand processes) and digitization (which includes e-business andinternal productivity projects). MacDowell says one of the main goalsof his standardization efforts will be reducing the array of differentmanufacturing systems, which currently number more than 40. He alsohopes that standardizing will help achieve an internal goal of $15million in revenue per IT employee.

Philips's Onur says his division will be aiming to restart theprojects it put on hold this year, including product data managementand CRM projects. Onur hasn't finalized his 2003 budget yet, but hebelieves it will be flat, or at best, may see a slightincrease.

At Ryder, Vital is shooting to increase next year's IT spending bymore than the 12 percent growth it has been averaging in recent years.Part of what attracted Vital to the job was the increasingly importantrole IT plays in the company. "The IT organization has a new charterto act as a business strategy partner; [to act] in a consultingcapacity to business areas," he says. "It's a different perspective onhow IT can bring value to the organization." Major areas of focus nextyear include EAI projects, its warehouse management system andleveraging the Web in its third-party logistics business. Vital mayalso add another 20 to 30 IT staffers. He notes, however, that therewill be cost-containment initiatives in the operating budget in areassuch as network bandwidth and phone coverage.

Some companies ply their trades in industries that are immune toconsumer-driven cycles. Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, forexample, has benefited from a cornucopia of defense dollars, partlyfueled by increased spending on the military since President Bush tookoffice. Keith Glennan, who is the CIO for the IT sector, thinks it'slikely that his IT budget will increase slightly. He's committed toreducing the recurring budget for things such as IT support andincreasing the nonrecurring budget. Projects he'll be focusing oninclude integrating recent acquisitions, such as Litton Industries andNewport News Shipbuilding, onto its SAPSAP platform and doing morebusiness electronically, such as Web-based collaboration withsuppliers. Alles zu SAP auf CIO.de

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