Despite overall decline, companies still investing in technologies that help control costs and enable businesses to work smarter
BOULDER, Colo., Mar. 24, 2009 – Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading IT management research and consulting firm, today announced the release of its latest research report entitled, “At the Edge of the Storm: IT Investments from Jan/08 through Feb/09.” The report suggests that while IT spend¬ing overall is on the decrease, IT management software appears to be less affected by the downturn.
“Faced with tight budgets and greater accountability in today’s dim economic climate, IT organizations and the businesses they support are turning to technologies that help them work smarter and differently than before,” said Dennis Drogseth, EMA vice president. “While our research shows that overall IT spending is down, we found that companies are still spending on management software directed at optimizing and aligning IT investments.”
The report evaluates data from nearly 4,000 EMA survey respondents between January 2008 and February 2009 to identify key trends in IT spending during the time period. Key findings include:
- Quarterly trends in IT spending throughout 2008 show a gradual decline in Q3 with a much more marked decline in Q4
- January and February 2009 IT dollars show a continuation of this decline in spending, with 46 percent of budgets on the decrease and 27 percent on the increase
- A comparison between Q1 2008 and Q1 2009 reveals an almost symmetrical transformation between increased and decreased IT investments – from 51 percent increasing early in 2008 to 46 percent decreasing in early 2009
- Industry-specific comparisons for IT budget growth between 2008 and Q1 2009 show a dramatic rise in government’s position and a sharp decline in educational IT budgets, as well as shifting rankings in other areas
- Automation and vendor re-evaluation top the charts as strategies for coping with the economic downturn
The complete research report is available now and can be purchased online at the discounted price of $395 through April 10, 2009.
About Enterprise Management Associates
Founded in 1996, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a leading industry analyst and consulting firm dedicated to the IT management market. The firm provides IT vendors and enterprise IT professionals with objective insight into the real-world business value of long-established and emerging technologies, ranging from security, storage and IT Service Management (ITSM) to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), virtualization and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Even with its rapid growth, EMA has never lost sight of the client, and continues to offer personalized support and convenient access to its analysts. For more information on the firm’s IT Management Research Library, free online IT Management Solutions Center and IT consulting offerings, visit www.www.enterprisemanagement.com.