IT
Spending Outlook
Spending
news continues to be mixed. Sales
gains are often modest or represent wins by one vendor or platform
but losses by another. Forecasts
remain flat or small for the rest of the year.
We bring confirmation from two sources:
-
IDC
reports that Linux server sales on a per unit basis were up 29.5
per cent, 1Q03 over 1Q02, a growth of almost 40,000 units.
On a revenue basis (often thought to be harder for the
low-priced Linux to attain, Linux server revenues were up by 35%
for the same period, an incremental gain of almost $150 million.
(That means about 5.5% of total server revenue went to
Linux in the last quarter, up about 30% for the quarter.)
Dell
and IBM continued to take market share from HP and Sun in total
server revenue, although HP did well in some market segments.
-
In
CIO Magazine’s May 2003 Tech Poll, 268 CIO’s forecast their
next 12 months tech spending at an increase of 3.3%, down from
the 4.2% forecast in April, often blaming weak corporate
profits.
While
21% claim budgets will shrink in
the coming year, 22% say they will remain flat, and 29% report
modest (from 1-9%) planned increases.
Surprisingly, 25-30% of
businesses now report they plan spending increases of "more
than 10%" in the coming 12 months, with the top three product
categories slated for spending increases remaining security, storage
and computer hardware.
Nevertheless, in the software
area of CRM, 35% of respondents reported they are in the process of
implementing a CRM initiative. 19% have put their CRM plans on hold
while 30% have no CRM plans at this time. 14% claim they have
completed their CRM initiative
2003 is unlikely to be a banner
year for IT spending. Nevertheless,
we can begin to see evidence that CIO’s and LOB IT decision makers
are beginning to look at the new technology opportunities and
comprehending that they may be able to save money and resources by
small increases in spending. In the long run, that could free up resources and funds for
larger scale, more critical projects, and a move to new IT
architectures. The IT
deep freeze may be moving toward its thaw.
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