Channel pins its hopes on SMEs

SMEs will lead the IT spending recovery next year and confidence has already improved "substantially" from a year ago, according to research.

Security, storage, wireless LANs, Linux and business intelligence software will be the top priorities for IT spending in 2004, according to research by Gartner and the Soundview Technology Group.

In the survey, the 600 IT executives said their capital spending budgets will begin to grow by 1.6 per cent in 2004.

Steve Wood, managing director of reseller Parity, said: "There is an air of confidence locally. People have been sweating their assets since 1998-99. They've come to recognise that they are running their businesses on these systems and there's no point holding on forever.

"There's a lot of confidence in the local market, and it's the smaller customers that we are seeing moving initially."

Dale Vile, service director at analyst Quocirca, said: "The supplier landscape is changing for smaller companies. A lot of technology has become accessible to them. The barriers to entry for voice over IP or CRM have lowered, so there is more room for movement."

Vile said Quocirca's research into larger companies also found that they were optimistic about next year.

"There's an indication that there will be a marginal increase in IT spending," he said.

steve_ranger@vnu.co.uk