In 2008 IT vendors will boost their marketing budgets by an average of just 4 per cent while sales budgets climb by 7.9 per cent, experts predict.

IDC's Executive Advisory Group notes that these budget increases are the lowest it has forecast in the past four years.

"Marketers should be prepared to withstand a budget reduction while still being able to keep the core elements of the marketing business model in place and productive," said Michael Gerard, vice president of research for the CMO Advisory Practice and Executive Advisory Group at IDC.

"Those technology marketers that continue improving their operations excellence coupled with efficiency of execution will be in a good position to weather this storm."

"We are advising our clients to continue improving alignment between marketing and sales, in particular focusing everyone's efforts back to the customer," added Lee Levitt, programme director for the Sales Advisory Practice at IDC.

"Most marketing and sales teams' assets and processes are out of sync with the needs of their buyers' requirements; and those companies that succeed at changing this trend will capture share in this challenging market. We have found increased dissatisfaction regarding the relationship between marketing and sales, and have specific recommendations to both turn that trend around and, specifically, to improve marketing and sales productivity."