More than three quarters of all Irish-based organisations will maintain or increase their spending on IT this year, according to the latest annual survey carried out by leading market researcher IDC. These results reflect the greatest levels of optimism among Irish IT buyers for three years, according to IDC analyst John Gilsenan.
Other findings also revealed a growing sophistication among Irish businesses in terms of their use of IT with an increased number saying that their purchases this year would include a software application specifically for the industry in which they participate. Indeed, intended purchases of such applications were exceeded in
popularity only by security applications, which also reflects a growing awareness of the essential role played by IT in today’s businesses.
The survey was carried out in May this year and was based on interviews with 301 Irish IT decision makers. Participants came from all industry sectors and from organisations of all sizes.
It is the latest in an annual series of surveys by the leading IT market research company that used to encompass several countries. Gilsenan told ComputerScope that although recent international surveys have tended to focus on more specific areas of the industry, the format of surveying overall IT spend remains popular in Ireland, largely owing to the small size of the market here compared with other countries.
Organisations classified as ‘small’ ie less than 100 employees, made up slightly more than half (156) of the 301 organisations surveyed. A further 88 were classified as ‘medium-sized’ ie having between 100 and 499 employees, whereas the remaining 57 were classified as
‘large’ organisations.
Nearly half (43 per cent) of all organisations said that their IT spending would increase this year and a further 34 per cent said that last year’s budgets would be maintained. Of those who expect to be spending more this year, more than half of them (52 per cent) said that the level of increase would be greater than 10 per cent
compared with last year’s spending. Furthermore, 13 per cent said the rate of increase would be 50 per cent or more.
Security appears to be uppermost in IT manager’s minds. When asked about implementation plans, 54 per cent of respondents said that a ‘security solution’ was on the shopping list for this year. Next in popularity was an ‘industry specific application’ which 46 per cent of respondents said they would purchase this year.
According to Gilsenan, this reflects the growing strategic importance of IT to Irish organisations. ‘It shows that there is a move away from generic applications to more specific applications,’ he said. Other popular items on which IT buyers will spend their money this year include mobile computing (41 per cent), storage (39 per cent)
and e-commerce (35 per cent).
The survey results also revealed much about the way Irish organisations deploy IT, said Gilsenan. Outsourcing has been slow to catch on here, and there is little sign that we are in a hurry to catch up. This is despite the implementation of one of the largest outsourcing contracts in Europe, which saw the bulk of Bank of Ireland’s IT staff transfer to HP. Last year, 54 per cent of total IT spend was classified as ‘external’ as opposed to ‘internal’, and for 2004 the external proportion will drop slightly to 53 per cent.
The most popular IT service that people outsource at the moment is consulting, with 49 per cent of respondents saying they buy this in. This compares with infrastructure support (33 per cent) network or desktop support (25 per cent), business continuity (25 per cent) and systems integration (24 per cent). However, this last item is likely to be the fastest growing as some 14 per cent of respondents say they ‘plan to use’ it in the future.
The survey also revealed that Dell is by far and away the most visible supplier of IT to the Irish market. Nearly 17 per cent of respondents considered Dell to be their ‘primary supplier of IT solutions.’ Next in line were HP and Microsoft at only 5.3 per cent each, although Gilsenan cautioned that the direct nature of Dell’s relationship with customers, as opposed to the channel-partner strategy favoured by Microsoft and HP perhaps influenced perceptions in Dell’s favour here.
Other companies considered to be leading IT suppliers included Eircom, IBM, Cisco, IT Resources, Oracle and Sage.
The full report entitled ‘IT trends and expenditure in Ireland 2004’ is available from IDC 01-8824440.
04/10/04
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