Western European IT spending grows
- Reduce text size Decrease text size
- Increase text size Increase text size
- Print article Print
- Jump to comments Comment
- Share this article Share
- Email article to a friend Email
IT spending in the Western European business sector grew by 3.4% in 2004 to reach around $267 billion, according to analyst group IDC.
IT spending in the Western European business sector grew by 3.4% in 2004 to reach around $267 billion, according to analyst group IDC.
Medium-sized companies set the pace with a 5.4% rise in IT spending, a trend IDC attributes to the increased availability of products tailored to their needs and to the growing perception that IT is a strategic investment. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) - defined as companies with less than 500 employees - accounted for 53% of total IT spending in Western Europe in 2004.
Looking forward, analysts at Forrester Research estimate that the SMB sector plans to increase IT budgets in 2006 by an average of 3.3%. Typically, half of their budget will go on IT staff and hardware, but over a third of companies questioned by Forrester put applications, ranging from back-office management tools to finance packages, at the top of their IT purchasing priority lists.
Meanwhile, in the enterprise sector the average spend is expected to creep up over the next three years, rising by a modest average of 2.9% in 2005, according to Forrester. Fuelling that growth will be the implementation of technologies such as voice over IP (VoIP) and virtual private networks (VPNs).
