Information Age: News, analysis & insight for IT & business leaders

After nearly a year of accelerating growth, the global information technology industry appears to have levelled out. The Infoconomy Index, which tracks the revenue growth rate of the world’s 200 largest technology companies, dipped slightly from last month to reach 11.5% in August 2007.

The European Index, meanwhile, which monitors a subset of 50 companies headquartered in the region, exhibited a brief reprieve from a steep decline in revenue growth which has so far lasted 10 months. It rose in August to 6.7%.

Upward pressure in the global index came from some of the household names of the industry. Hewlett-Packard turned in a seven-year record with its recent financials, growing revenues by 16% to reach $25.3 billion, and networking giant Cisco grew its revenues by 18% to reach $9.4 billion.

But not all of the big names helped the cause: Dell, although delighting investors with evidence of a bounce back, turned in a below par 5% revenue growth, while revenues at Sun Microsystems stayed perfectly flat at $3.85 billion. Nortel Networks saw revenues droop by 8%, going down to $2.5 billion.

Nortel’s rival, French-owned Alcatel-Lucent, also dragged down the index with a 4% fall in revenues, but that had an even bigger negative impact on the European index. The pace in Europe, however, can thank LogicaCMG for its recent up-tick: the continent’s fourth largest IT services provider turned in a 36% revenue jump, partly fuelled by last summer’s acquisition of Swedish rival WM-data. A 45% rise in revenues at Netherlands headquartered business applications software vendor Unit 4 Agresso also helped turn the index in the right direction.

The Infoconomy 200 Index measures the overall growth rate of the IT industry by tracking the financial results of the world’s most important publicly listed IT companies.