LOS ANGELES — Companies are spending 20.3 percent of their 2003 information technology budgets on e-business initiatives, according to a third annual study by Line 56 Media and consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

In 2002, the percentage was 19.3, and in 2001, spending was 17.5 percent, says the survey, which shows a continuing growth of e-business initiatives relative to overall IT expenditure.

Line 56 Media, a source of news and analysis on enterprise technology and strategy, and A.T. Kearney, a management consulting firm, surveyed companies with more than $250 million in revenue, and found that they are currently spending about $42.6 million on e-business initiatives. The study also found that e-business spending is expected to grow at 2.5 percent in 2004.

"Despite the attention that new areas of e-business, such as mobility solutions and web services, are attracting, traditional investments still take the largest portion of funding," said Bob Haas, vice president, A.T. Kearney. "These findings support our observations that successful companies are taking a more pilot-driven approach to adoption of leading-edge technologies."

The research shows that 38 percent of all e-business spending is directed toward networking and infrastructure initiatives, such as server hardware and software, and databases. In the area of e-business applications and tools, the majority of spending is being directed toward enterprise resource planning, portals, supply chain management, customer relationship management and content management initiatives.