According to Forrester's survey, momentum will continue to build in wireless networking, voice over IP (VoIP) technologies, and building portals with single sign-on. RFID adoption will remain limited to niche verticals.

Additional research suggests the following:

• Linux will cement its place in the data center. Linux reached a new level of maturity with the latest version, maturing distributors, and increased application support from larger vendors. Forrester anticipates that by the end of 2004, close to 10 percent of Global 2,000 companies will have migrated from Windows servers to Linux for their basic network operating system infrastructure.
• Offshore outsourcing continues. More companies than ever will use remote programming and business processing resources to support their corporate goals. The Indian IT services market will grow at least 30 percent during 2004. A notable component of this trend: Offshore customer service and technical support will focus even more resources on accent neutralization, English language proficiency, and both product and customer service training to eliminate service complaints by customers.
• Ongoing pressure for IT/business alignment. This pressure will lead to a focus on everything from value-based metrics and portfolio management to relationship managers as a key to organizational effectiveness and business-savvy CIOs. Business intelligence will be used to measure corporate performance as companies align data assets and analytics with business processes, according to Forrester.
• Improving global telecom services. 2004 is the last year that enterprises should expect to be in fairly strong positions to negotiate with providers. By the third quarter of 2004, customers with relatively stable networks should consider signing one- or two-year contract extensions with long-term favored providers.
• CRM will stay flat. Although attracting, retaining, and serving customers continues to be a major priority (and a major challenge) for companies in today's economy, CRM licensed revenues were down roughly 20 percent in 2003 and will grow only modestly -- 5 percent to 10 percent -- through 2005.
• Service orientation becomes mainstream. Application architectures are moving toward a service-based model that will enable faster, more flexible changes in response to business needs. However, Forrester suggests application architects keep a tactical, low-investment stance about secure Web services throughout 2004, as the view into industry standards and practices won't be clear until at least 2005.