Executives skittish on tech outlook - Company Business and Marketing

Only 12% of Fortune 500 CEOs and CIOs are "very confident" that their firms have the communications technology solutions needed for the next two to three years, according to an Impulse Research Corp. survey conducted for Unisphere Solutions. The survey assessed the attitudes of 83 CEOs and 117 CIOs from 200 Fortune 500 firms over a three-week period in January.

The survey reveals that 46% of respondents were "somewhat confident" the right solutions were in place; 27% "were not very confident;" and 15% were "not at all confident." Among CEOs, 48% were "not very" or "not at all confident" that their companies had the communications technology needed for the next several years. Among other findings:

* 69% of executives say costs for new solutions were greater than anticipated;

* 30% say decisions about communications technology were based on marketing hype;

* 50% lacked an understanding of what new solutions were supposed to accomplish;

* 48% found technology vendors uneducated about their technology needs; and

* 45% had purchased communication technologies that did not deliver on the vendor's promise.

E-mail is the number one communications technology in order of current importance, with 89% of the executives giving it a top ranking. The Internet is second at 82%--but among technologies considered key to future success, it topped the list at 90%. Corporate networks or intranets are second at 76%, followed by e-mail at 75%; wireless communications, 64%; portable computers, 60%; and convergence of voice, data, and pictures, 54%. The fax dropped from 66% to 11% in importance to future success.

The survey also reveals that corporate officers will continue to rely on outside sources, including consultants (55%) and trade publications (54%), rather than internal telecom experts or network administrators, when seeking communications technology advice. The key influence in assessing whether to adopt a technology is personal knowledge acquired by reading about and keeping current with technology trends, the survey shows.

PERCENT                CEO    CIO    TOTAL

Very confident          5.3   16.2   11.7
Somewhat confident     47.0   45.5   46.1
Not very confident     35.6   21.0   27.0
Not at all confident   21.1   17.3   15.2
PERCENT                  CEO    CIO    TOTAL

One of the first to      10.0   14.0   12.4
adopt new technologies

Early adopter, but       66.0   57.9   61.4
not of the first

Wait until               19.1   26.6   23.5
technology is proven

Wait until most have      4.4    1.5    2.7
adopted it

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