Enterprises Want More Value from IT Services: Report

IT executives in North America and Europe are focusing on getting more value for the money spent on IT services, the latest Enterprise IT Services survey by Forrester Research, found.

 

Efforts by IT executives are directed toward sustaining their companies in a slow economy, and they are taking a variety of measures to this effect, the survey said.

 

The research firm surveyed more than 900 IT executives and technology decision-makers in Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and the United States. The results found that enterprise spending plans for IT services are mixed. IT contractors and consultants will see the deepest decreases in spending, but systems integration and outsourcing services will see the most increases.

 

The IT spending trend is very different from the last recession from 2001 to 2002. During that period a large number of companies decided to outsource IT to cut down internal IT costs. But things are different now and IT spending plans are more mixed.

 

Around 30 percent of respondents said they plan to increase spending on systems integration and project work, 26 percent will spend more in applications outsourcing, and 25 percent expect will increase spending on infrastructure outsourcing. Of those surveyed, 41 percent of intends to reduce spending on contractors. Thirty-four percent expect lower spending on IT consulting.

 

“As the global economic downturn puts pressure on IT services spending, firms are taking a range of actions to deal with the cuts,” said John McCarthy, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester (News - Alert), in a statement. “The pressure to reduce IT spending is going to continue well into 2010. The data shows no quick turnaround — it’s going to be a tough year for services firms as clients increasingly ask them to justify the ROI for IT projects and provide more value for a lower price.”

 

This latest survey is part of Forrester’s Business Data Services series, which provides an extensive data set for B2B Market Research professionals’ go-to-market strategy assessments.