2007 is on pace to be a milestone
year for the IT industry, as worldwide IT spending is projected to surpass $3
trillion, says information technology research and advisory company, Gartner,
Inc. IT spending in 2007 will reach $3.1 trillion in 2007, an 8 per cent increase
from last year, and spending for 2008 is forecast grow 5.5 per cent and total
$3.3 trillion. During
the opening keynote today at Gartner Symposium / ITxpo, being held in Mumbai till
12 October, Gartner outlined how IT leaders must be able to respond to change
quicker than ever before. There is a need for flexibility, and a need for agility.
Peter Sondergaard,
senior vice president and global head of Research at Gartner, said IT leaders
should create two IT budgets for 2008. The first should reflect the same kind
of marginal growth prepared during the past six years, while the second should
assume the need to cut costs in response to the arrival of a possible recession.
"The business
plans that you had in June are probably not going to completely address the changed
conditions of your business in November," Sondergaard told an audience of
6,000 IT decision makers. "Together with your business colleagues and your
CEO you are going to have to deliver new efficiencies, new innovations and new
ideas to sustain profitability and growth. IT will be core to many of those responses."
The challenge
for IT leaders is how they are going to react "Simply
delivering internally focused savings isn''t going to be enough," Sondergaard
said. "You (IT leaders) need to step up to the challenge of delivering new
solutions to those critical business imperatives." On
a worldwide basis, IT spending continues to grow at a rapid pace in developing
countries. In fact, one-third of IT spending now occurs outside of North America,
Western Europe, and Japan. This development will create new innovation in IT,
new competitors, new usage patterns, and continued cost improvement benefits for
users," Sondergaard said. As
IT moves East and South, it will mostly affect the growing areas of the industry.
End-user spending will globally move towards software, services, and all aspects
of mobility. These categories made up 57 per cent of spending in 2006, will become
60 pe rcent in 2008, and are forecast to have grown to 63 per cent in 2011. Symposium
/ ITxpo is the industry''s largest and most strategic conference for senior IT
and business professions. More than 6,000 senior business and IT strategists from
virtually all major industries will have gathered to gain the latest advice on
the biggest challenge: driving profits and performance with IT.
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