Spending on IT by small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be higher proportionally than the overall IT spend by companies worldwide, analyst firm IDC has predicted.
IDC said it expects increasing alignment of technology, distribution and customer service will be a key trend throughout 2008, with a variety of evolutionary and even revolutionary changes driving opportunities.
Worldwide IT spending growth among SMEs will vary considerably by regions and will reach just over 7pc in 2008, a slower rate than in 2007. However, the IT spending increases by SMEs will still be roughly 2pc higher than overall IT spending increases on a worldwide basis.
IDC also predicted that growing SME use of the internet in the US and Canada will encourage greater use of hosted and software as a service (SaaS) solutions.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a greater SME focus by technology providers will help drive growth in this sector.
“A growing number of technology providers will invest time, talent and money in the worldwide SME market,” said Raymond Boggs, vice-president of SME research at IDC.
“Different regions offer different kinds of opportunities, but the concentrated focus on effective messaging, innovative products and efficient distribution will be at the heart of vendor success across geographies.”
By Niall Byrne
