CBR rounds up expert comments on Gartner's new prediction that Worldwide IT spending will reach EURO2.28tn this year.
Evanna Kearins, director of Jaspersoft, told CBR
"Even though we still find ourselves in a hugely volatile economy (and facing the threat of a triple-dip recession in the UK), it's both encouraging yet unsurprising that IT spend continues to grow. Previously, any form of IT within an enterprise was solely the domain of the CIO and his or her team. Now, thanks to the extrapolation of tablets and smartphones, as well as more open models within IT, more and more people from within the business are able to self-serve their own IT functions. Take business intelligence, for example. Where it was once an incredibly technical process, with all data stored in bursting-at-the-seams data warehouses, now, thanks to open source, it has evolved to the stage where a CEO can check on the progress of their business on their tablet from their holiday home. When you add the fact that organisations are continuing to innovate and bring more products, that were previously solely deployable by enterprises, to the SME market, you can why the demand for flexible IT continues to grow and the industry continues to flourish."
Rajesh Ganesan, director of ManageEngine
"No doubt the industry will lick its lips at the prospect of 4.2% growth in business IT spend, particularly given the weak outlook for economies across the globe. Companies of course need to make sure that they invest for their future success but even after the straitened times of the past few years they still have a lot of unnecessary IT spend that they could strip out. In many cases, they're paying over the odds to subsidise large marketing budgets, vast sales teams and rafts of acquisitions."
Mark Finch, vice president of European customer experience at OpenText told CBR
"Gartner predicts that worldwide IT spending will increase by 4.2% compared with last year, reaching EURO2.28tn. This is partially driven by an increased spending on devices including PCs, tablets and mobile phones, as well as business investment in enterprise software on customer relationship management and information management tools to meet consumer demands for an improved and more engaging customer experience.
As the number of tablet, smart phone and other consumer devices continues to explode, companies are expected to deliver new and tailored content for each device. And to keep customers happy, companies can't simply support content across the associated multitudes of global sites, contributors and visitors. They must also engage customers, soliciting feedback and learning from their behaviours.
To do this, organisations need a helping hand to monitor and manage the customer's experience from the moment they hit the company's website or mobile app, to the way media or content is consumed, and how transactions are conducted. "
Mark Davies, sales and marketing director of Cobweb Technology told CBR
"With IT spending constrained over the last few years, productivity gains enabled by IT investment can now no longer be ignored. Striving for business efficiency and agility often has improved IT at its core. Cloud adoption will drive richer and more diverse software 'apps' into business, with BYOD and smart user devices encouraging the anytime any place workforce that could be considered a characteristic of a modern business."
