IT Survey Spotlights E-Commerce.

• Position: Brief Article

FEI's third annual Technology Issues for Financial Executives survey, released at the Forum on Finance and Technology Conference in mid-September, shows a marked shift in what FBI members view as their major challenges in IT. Where Year 2000 computer conversions concerns had been an overriding issue a year ago, the issue getting the most attention these days is electronic commerce.

E-commerce, in fact, has become the single largest area of discretionary IT spending, the survey found, at 18 percent of IT budgets. Moreover, 71 percent of companies said they are involved in an e-commerce project. On the other hand, Y2K has quickly paled into a memory, and fewer than 10 percent of the respondents said they experienced Y2K problems that they regarded as more than minimal.

A notable change, the survey authors said, "is that survey respondents seem more ready to view technology as a strategic resource and a lever to improve business...