Information technology (IT) solutions are fast becoming strategic business tools for enterprise development in Asia as they have been listed as the highest priorities on enterprises' investment agenda, analysts said Monday in Hong Kong.

Analysts on investment and strategy research in Hong Kong believe that the actual dollar being increasingly budgeted for enterprise resource strategic developments is reflective of the positive investment opportunities in the Asia Pacific region as IT solutions are inherently designed to solve business problems that exist within the enterprises.

Nowadays, cutthroat competition has forced organizations across industries and business size to seek ways to eliminate unnecessary cost and improve operational efficiencies so that they can meet bottom line results, said Robin Giang, a senior analyst for International Data Corporation (IDC).

As a result, Giang said, a number of enterprises are turning to strategic solutions such as enterprise relationship management, customer relationship management and supply chain management to help them streamline business processes so they are able to better manage inventory, fulfillment, distribution and customer service in order to stay competitive.

According to IDC's recent survey, over 900 IT professionals in major geographies across the Asia Pacific region surveyed have listed IT solutions such as relationship management, system infrastructures and collaborative technologies as the highest priorities on enterprises' investment agenda.

IDC, a leading global market intelligence and advisory firm, said that between 2000 and 2001, the percentage of responding enterprises with no external budget for enterprise relationship management solutions was observed dropping from 17 percent to eight percent, and positive investment intentions in these areas are witnessed in countries such as Australia and in market segments such as banking and finance.

"The attractiveness of the solutions lie in their ability to automate and optimize the management of corporate resources, such as people, finance, materials, facilities and intellectual capital required to meet business objectives by tracking, routing and analyzing information concerning these assets," Giang explained.

As with the case of enterprise management, experts on IT industry held that businesses view customer relationship management not only as a technology but also as a business strategy, and they are enabled to maintain sustainable growth through higher levels of customer satisfaction and retention.

However, while the beneficial rewards of a customer relationship management roll out could be enormous, enterprises in the region are still reserved to heavily plow money in its implementations, they predicted.

"Despite the strong awareness and even investment intention factors, many enterprises still need to be convinced of the value- added and rapid return on investment of a customer relationship management deployment before actual dollar will be spent," Giang concluded.