And the big will buy big
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Big IT company revenues are depressed, but holding up; smaller companies (with many gallant exceptions) are having a much tougher time, with many suffering large double digit revenue falls.
Back in the days when computers had plumbing, there used to be a phrase for it: "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". Whenever an IBM salesman feared that his prospect was considering other suppliers, these words would be gently dropped in.
In an interview in last month's issue of Information Age, Wall Street's most influential enterprise IT analyst, Chuck Phillips of Morgan Stanley, said the trend is returning: "Buyers are trimming their supplier lists, bypassing smaller companies in favour of market leaders."
The evidence is clear enough on the ground. Big IT company revenues are depressed, but holding up; smaller companies (with many gallant exceptions) are having a much tougher time, with many suffering large double digit revenue falls.
All this is bad news for smaller suppliers, if not for the customers, who may find themselves lacking choices. At a recent 3i and Infoconomy event, executives from several small suppliers asked potential customers at some bigger companies: How do we get on your radar? The answers were polite but very non-committal.
Although there are some IT buyers who have a record of buying from smaller vendors , most can no longer afford to gamble. It is back to "no one ever got fired for buying IBM", although, of course, the names of Microsoft, Oracle and SAP can be now be readily substituted in the adage.
