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By Bob Trebilcock, Modern Materials Handling

When the Internet boom went bust in 2001, companies stopped investing in technology. In some respects, the slowdown in tech spending following the collapse of the NASDAQ and 9/11 may have led to the economic slowdown.

Fast-forward to 2009 and we find ourselves in the midst of another slowdown. This time, however, business may continue to invest in technology, especially in solutions that can drive business and productivity improvements. That's the finding of a survey of global retail CIO's conducted at the end of 2008 – after the stock market crash — by a research firm on behalf of IBM and Aldata Solution, Inc., a French-based provider of supply chain execution solutions for the retail industry.

"We do an annual survey to find out what retail CIO's are looking to invest in," says Allan Davies, Aldata's chief marketing officer. "It helps us determine what we're going to invest in." The most surprising takeaway, says Davies: "Since we did this survey after the economy went into a tailspin in the fall, we were getting post-crash responses. We thought everyone was going to slash their budgets. Instead, the overall message was that CIO's are under pressure to cut costs, but they can't afford to cut service."

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SOURCE: Modern Materials Handling