IT Spending Pruned But Consultants, Contractors Fare Well

SMBs and enterprises plan to continue cutting back on IT spending for the remainder of the year, but many also say they still plan to use consultants and contractors, according to a new Forrester survey.

The report, Enterprise and SMB Global IT Budgets and Spending Survey, for the second quarter of 2009 found that overall the global recession is pressuring North American enterprises and SMBs, with them expecting to decrease 2009 IT operating budgets and IT capital budgets by 3 percent and 2 percent for European IT operating budgets, said Forrester analysts Heidi Lo and Andrew Bartels.

"Enterprises revealed a glum business outlook for 2009," the authors said. "More than half of firms believed that 2009 would be a somewhat challenging year, with an additional 36 percent foreseeing an extremely challenging year."

As a result, survey respondents said they expect to cut back on software and hardware spending.

However, spending on information management software and networking equipment will face lesser declines than other software and hardware categories, Forrester said.

And while 45 percent of companies said that reducing IT spending was a top priority, at the same time 42 percent said that hiring a consulting or systems integration firm for a major application implementation was also a top priority.

The survey also found that IT budget decision-makers list their direct vendor salesperson as the most important source of information for their purchasing decisions, followed closely by peers and colleagues and technology or business publications and magazines.

In addition, decision-makers said they are turning to online sources, such as analyst blogs and Web-based links for information. However, decision-makers said that blogs from vendors, peers or industry commentators command less of their attention, said Forrester.

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