Communications and compliance show promise for 2011

IDC measures the pulse of Western Europe's vertical markets for the next year in IT sales

Utilities will be one vertical looking at IT to help it solve its business issues through 2011

Communications sector and utilities sales are expected to grow through 2011, with many other vertical markets focusing increasingly on compliance and customer-centric strategies, according to IDC.

The analyst’s European vertical market survey for 2010 has named the issues and areas it believes will shape ICT demand in 2010-2011.

Giuliana Folco, vice president for European vertical market research at IDC and one of the study’s authors, said Western European companies will remain cautious but will target trusted ICT partners to help them solve specific business issues.

“For companies in all verticals including the public sector, risk transparency and short-term, demonstrable Return on Investment (RoI) will be essential requirements,” she said.

Communications sector sales, driven by spending on network infrastructure, and utilities sales would likely do best, Folco added.

Compliance issues would be a focus for government, finance, healthcare, business services and energy, with customer-centric strategy driving demand for IT in transport, telecommunications and distribution verticals, she said.

Customer innovation around marketing, customer service, loyalty and initiatives aimed at helping the launch of new products and services would be areas where companies sought the help of IT, according to the survey.

In addition, manufacturers would look to boost operational excellence across their supply chains and plants – hinting at another area of potential for the channel. Green initiatives would also prove popular with some.

However, growth would remain flat overall in Western Europe and recover moderately in 2011, she said. Finance and government sales, accounting together for about a third of business IT spending, would grow no more than one per cent through 2011.