Half are more worried about this issue than any other, but only one in five plans spending.

Despite rating customer loyalty and satisfaction as top priorities, fewer than one in five companies has actual plans to spend money tackling the issues.

According to a poll of more than 600 attendees at a recent vendor conference, half of all IT executives are more worried about keeping their own customers happy than anything else; but only 19 per cent said they planned to invest in customer care in 2007 and 2008.

Oscar Rodriguez, chief marketing officer at the Alcatel-Lucent business group, maintained that the need to satisfy customers comes up time and time again in its discussions with clients. “As we talk to you and your customers, and as we go around the world, we find that customer interaction is key,” he said. “If you are a government agency it is about satisfying your constituents and making sure they have what they need. If you are an enterprise it is about making sure that customers come back again and again and loyalty is developed.”

A quarter of the delegates were most worried about the security of their company’s information, but only 12 per cent planned to invest in this area in the next two years. Instead, a third of companies plan to focus on mobility issues, with 29 per cent looking to improve unified communications and collaboration.

“Mobility and unified communications is very interesting,” said Rodriguez. “So you want everybody to be connected in all different ways, but to be mobile at the same time.”

Contact Brinley Platts on 07973 745 640 at CIODEVELOPMENT.COM to find out how you can engage your colleagues and team on the issues raised by this article.