The offshoring of manufacturing is supposed to be a big deal among U.S. companies. But you wouldn't know that from a new IT Trends study by the Society for Information Management (SIM). The survey of nearly 140 chief information officers and IT executives from around the world finds that only 3.3 percent of 2007 IT budgets are devoted to funding offshoring activities. A full two-thirds of organizations surveyed aren't dedicating any funds at all to such initiatives. On the other hand, an average 9.3 percent of IT budgets are earmarked for domestic outsourcing, with more than a third dedicated to internal staff.

Almost two-thirds of survey respondents said they will maintain or increase their level of IT staffing next year. Nearly 85 percent plan on maintaining or increasing IT budgets during that time, SIM said. The group also looked at the issues that are foremost on the minds of IT professionals. Heading into 2007, the top five management concerns are: alignment of IT and business processes; the attraction, development and retention of IT professionals; security and privacy; IT strategic planning; and project management capability. As for applications and technologies of greatest importance to SIM's members, Web services ranks at the top. It is followed by business intelligence resources, security technologies, business-process management, customer portals, and applications and system integration.

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