Forget the fancy hardware as CIOs say: 'show me the money'

Technologies such as fixed-mobile convergence are coming to the fore as CIOs look to cut back on their mobile indulgences, according to RIM.

According to the BlackBerry maker's co-CEO Jim Balsillie, the company has seen the economic downturn spur IT chiefs into taking a 'show me the money' approach.

"These economic times have had a dramatic impact on the way we interact with businesses because it went very quickly to essentials - the first essential was 'show me how you can save me money'. It's things like fixed mobile convergence, least-cost routing, the BES 5.0 with over the air easier management, simplified administration: show me how you can save me money.

"It's really hit because they're under pressure from the CFO and business pressures and IT has to move with the business realities," he told silicon.com at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Orlando.

Security too has risen up the corporate agenda as a result of the recession, Balsillie said, with risk management a particular focus.

"Boards of directors really started to take risk management much more seriously - I think we went through an era where everything was shooting along so fast - it was about opportunity seizing - then what happened was variability kicked in and downsides kicked in, and people became very very focused on 'are we risk managing properly in our businesses?'," he said.

Balsillie's comments echo silicon.com's own recent CIO Agenda research, which found security to be the top priority for CIOs this year with 62 per cent of IT chiefs saying it will be a key strategy area for 2009. A report earlier this year by industry analysts also predicted a rise in security budgets over 2009, with the proportion of IT funds spent on security expected to grow by around one per cent year on year.

While device security may be on the ascendancy as CIOs reprioritise, upgrading to the highest speed devices and mobile fripperies are falling by the wayside.

"The priorities shifted and the indulgences on 'hey I want this colour device and that colour device, I want 4G and 5G and network speeds for network speeds', it really shifted away from indulgence-type discussions to real essentials and fundamentals," Balsillie said.

According to the latest set of figures from industry analysts Gartner, smartphone sales in the last quarter of 2008 hit their lowest growth rate to date - rising just 3.7 per cent year-on-year thanks in no small part to the economic slowdown.