topleft
topright
Enter the Member Network Zone View the Top 10 Points Leaderboard View Members Who Are Currently Online View Latest Member Activity

Featured Blogger

Who Can I Blame?
Ty Kiisel

Featured Members


Member Network Zone

Expert Blog Comments

Keeping the Wheels Turning
In the end it all boils down to communication. If the Project manager communicates properly with the...
Top 5 Tech Trends to Watch for In 2012
It's true - no one is really surprised that cloud computing is on the list! Enjoyed reading about th...
Is Your CIO an Insomniac?
cross-posted comment to this article by Tony Campbell - I think that a CIO that doesn't plan for go...
Is Your CIO an Insomniac?
I sleep well at night. Jokes apart, a well balanced and empowered team (in-house or outsourced) redu...
Federal CIO Quits Post, Stalls Cloud Initiaves
Wow, I take this as a solid "No Vote" on the Cloud from the government! As much as they may look fo...
Tech Spending Under Pressure, But IT Services Seen Growing
Written by Mel Duvall
A survey released this week by Forrester Research confirmed what most in the industry have suspected: IT budgets are being cut in the face of a global economic slowdown.


In a survey of 950 large organizations in North America and Europe, Forrester found that 43% of companies have already trimmed their overall IT budgets in reaction to the downturn in the global economy. In North America, which felt the downturn before Europe, the effect has been more severe with 49% saying IT budgets had been cut.


As is often the case, however, the Forrester survey found that not all areas of technology spending are being impacted to the same degree. Demand for IT services in particular remains strong, or at least steady.


Forrester found that 45% of firms plan to increase their use of applications outsourcing, while 43% of firms are increasing their use of infrastructure outsourcing. Furthermore, 43% of respondents said they are moving more work offshore. In the infrastructure outsourcing arena, telecommunications and network management appears to be a hot commodity, with 20% of firms saying they will outsource this service in 2008.


The findings aren’t all good news for the IT Services industry. When asked how the economy will affect IT services spending, 70% of respondents said they will likely negotiate lower rates with suppliers and 16% said they have already cut their IT services spending.


And here’s one other bit of bad news: Satisfaction with outsourcing and IT services remains low. Forrester says 52% of those surveyed say their biggest challenge with existing IT services and outsourcing relationships is that cost savings are lower than expected. IT managers also pointed to challenges with inconsistent or poor service quality (40%) and the inability of the vendor or contract structure to respond rapidly to changing business needs (35%).




Comment on this article
RSS comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

[ Back ]




News & Noteworthy Archive

Past News Items From Reuters

White Paper Library

Copyright © 2007-2012 CIOZones. All Rights Reserved. CIOZone is a property of PSN, Inc.