IT budgets will increase in 2010

Gartner says that budgets will grow by 1.53%

2010 worldwide software budgets will increase, according to a survey by Gartner.

The survey showed that organizations plan to increase their software budgets on average 1.53 percent in 2010.

Gartner surveyed approximately 1,000 IT professionals worldwide during April and May 2009. Respondents were asked whether they expected their 2010 IT budget to be below, be the same as or exceed the IT budget for 2009. Thirty percent of companies in Asia/Pacific, 28 percent in North America, and 25 percent in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) said they expected their 2010 IT budget to increase.

“Software vendors should continue to build, fund and invest in software sales and marketing programs, even during tight market conditions to maintain customers and expand revenue opportunities,” said Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner. “A market downturn is a disrupter that creates great marketing and sales opportunities for organizations prepared to take advantage of the right products, marketing programs and funding.”

“Vendors need to use a consultative selling approach to understand and then address the most critical needs of IT and the business of their current and prospective clients,” said Correia. “Software vendors also need to develop a stronger presence through partnerships or an extended sales force in emerging markets where higher budget increases are expected.”

Ms. Correia advised software vendors not to use the current economic market as an excuse to scale back on their service offerings and said that vendors need to be able to differentiate with key integration technologies, vertical-market and line-of-business solutions, and diversified customer bases.

Analysts said that although infrastructure spending (telecom, networks, PCs and help desk, and their maintenance) still accounts, on average, for 37 percent of the IT budget, savings in the infrastructure area are being used to fund “frontier applications” that drive innovation and provide competitive edge.