Global software spend on the up

Global software spend is set to increase marginally in 2010, but vendors must focus on helping customers save more money to encourage investment, Gartner has claimed.

The analyst firm questioned about 1,000 IT professionals across the world during April and May this year, asking whether they expected their 2010 IT budget to be below, the same or exceed the IT budget for 2009.

Positively 30 per cent of companies in Asia Pacific, 28 per cent in North America and 25 per cent in EMEA said they expected budgets to increase next year. On average this pointed to a 1.5 per cent increase in software spend next year, Gartner claimed.

Actual Gartner predictions say that EMEA spend will increase by a minute 0.45 per cent next year compared with 2009. Asia/Pacific topped the league with an expected 4.34 per cent increase in spend, with Latin America rising 2.5 per cent. North America was less positive with an expected decline of 2.06 per cent.

Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner, said: “Software vendors should continue to build, fund and invest in software sales and marketing programmes, even during tight market conditions to maintain customers and expand revenue opportunities.

“A market downturn is a disrupter that creates great marketing and sales opportunities for organisations prepared to take advantage of the right products, marketing programmes and funding.

She also encouraged vendors to make use of channel partnerships:

"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," she said. "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."