Revival In The Offi ng?

In the recent times, there has been a spate of analyst reports have been
pointing to signs of revival in the economy, especially in information,
communication and technology (ICT). According to one report released by
Datamonitor, the ICT service revenues increased globally on a sequential basis
to $59.8 million in Q3'09, after declining for the previous six quarters in a
row.

Here are some figures from the report:

• Software and IT services revenues were $28.3 billion, up 3.6 percent
  sequentially, down 4.9 percent versus Q3'08. Fujitsu, HP, and IBM led the
  segment in marketshare
• Business Process Consulting were $18.6 billion, up 2.4 percent
  sequentially, and down 6.6 percent versus Q3'08. IBM, Accenture, and CSC led
  this segment in marketshare
• Telecom infrastructure services were $12.8 billion, up 0.6 percent
  sequentially, and down 8.6 percent versus Q3'08.

T-Systems, Cisco, Ericsson, NSN, and Alcatel-Lucent each held more than 10
percent share in this segment in 3Q09

Even IDC expects worldwide IT spending to turn positive in 2010.

The market analyst states that globally IT spending is likely to grow by 2.9
percent in 2010, and this will soon double to 5.7 percent in 2012. Amongst the
Asian countries which are doing to be spearheading this growth are China, India,
Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

But don't get the party hats out yet. Revenues are still not very high,
especially when compared to the growth posted two fiscals yet. But in an
industry starved for good news, this has come as manna from heaven. More so,
because this trend signals that business is beginning to improve.

Partners I have spoken to in recent times are also showing cautious optimism
about customers now willing to engage into discussions about future IT
investments. From a time, when customers refused to even show any inclination to
open the door to such a conversation to showing a quiet interest in at least
keeping the communication open, this has come as good news for solution
providers.

Now it is important for these partners to be able to use this interest into
translation of actual business, preferably while ensuring that the client does
not have to spend overtly on new hardware or software. Which is easier said than
done.

As we now move on to a new year and towards the much-awaited DQ Channels SP
Summit, we have decided to build the event around a single theme-lessons learned
from the slowdown. This event will dwell at length on what the leading as well
as the upcoming solution providers have realized over the past two tumultuous
years on safeguarding their business interests.

Needless to say, the interest for this landmark event has already started
building up. This makes it very imperative for us to justify these high
expectations

VINITA BHATIA

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in