|
By Mel Duvall
In the first part of a two part interview, Society for Information Management (SIM) President Peter Whatnell looked back on what has been a painful six months for CIOs. In the second part of the interview Whatnell discusses the outlook for the second half of 2009. The forecast? Cloudy at best.
There was hope recently that the end to the recession may be at hand, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke even proclaiming that the "green shoots" of recovery were evident. But the picture even in the last day or two has gotten more uncertain and many CIOs appear to be waiting for firmer evidence before going back to business as usual.
"I would say people are just starting to emerge from their shelters. It's rather like the tornado has just gone through," says SIM President Peter Whatnell. "So, people are not expecting any further sharp downturns, but they're still a little gun-shy in predicting when things will turn up."
That viewpoint seemed to be in step with two reports that came out this week: one a warning from the World Bank that the global recession is much deeper than expected, and that the world economy will contract by 2.9% in 2009; and the other from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which predicted many of the world's largest economies would fall into double digit unemployment.
"The general feeling seems to be that it's going to flat for a while," adds Whatnell, "and most people don't feel comfortable about predicting an upturn before Q1 or Q2 of 2010."
What does that mean for IT spending? In talks with other members of SIM, Whatnell says he has found little evidence that companies are canceling major technology deployments already in progress. But there does appear to be widespread evidence that new projects have been put on hold.
Faced with flat or reduced budgets, many IT departments are looking for ways to stretch their dollars further and that includes trying some options that they might have shunned in the past. As an example, Whatnell, who serves as the CIO for petroleum marketer Sunoco, says his department is looking more closely at using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or cloud offerings. He hasn't yet pulled the trigger on such a deployment, but he believes the company will move forward in the next two quarters with a least one pilot.
"I've noticed in talking with (other CIOs) that their capacity for risk has gone up a bit," says Whatnell, "in terms of trying something new - whether it be online services, cloud computing, outsourcing or offshoring. Things that they previously wouldn't have considered, they're now willing to take a closer look at."
Financial results coming in this quarter from technology vendors seem to substantiate that higher appetite for risk. A number of SaaS vendors like Salesforce.com and Concur Technologies continue to show strong growth in the face of the downturn, while traditional vendors like SAP and Oracle struggle. Oracle reported Tuesday that in the quarter ended May 31, revenue slid 5% to $6.86 billion. In addition, corporate profits fell 7.2% hurt by slower corporate technology spending and currency fluctuations.
Another byproduct of the recession is that a number of technology executives and CIOs have found themselves out of work. In times like this, says Whatnell, it is more important than ever to use the power of networking, be it through associations like SIM or through new social networking platforms.
SIM, a national association with more than 3,800 members, offers a number of programs to help its members network for opportunities as well as refresh or advance their skills. Many of the larger SIM chapters, for example, have job transition programs where unemployed members are matched with working CIOs or senior IT executives as a way of providing them with a support network and trusted advisor.
For its own part, SIM expected to see a dip in membership renewals this year as a form of cost cutting, but membership has remained steady and two new chapters have been launched, one in the Midwest and another in North Carolina. "I think in times like this people really appreciate the fact that they can talk confidentially and privately with people facing similar issues," says Whatnell.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
