IT industry confidence on the rise, claims research

IT firms are less worried about credit availability and economic recovery now than six months ago

Growing confidence: Sixty per cent of those surveyed were optimistic about growing revenues over the next six months

Confidence within the IT industry is expected to grow over the next six months, research shows.

According to trade body CompTIA’s latest IT Industry Business Confidence Index, business confidence within the IT industry is expected to rise by 5.4 points between now and December.

The 306 US IT firms that took part in the survey highlighted several areas they are less concerned about now than they were six months ago.

These include the threat of a stalled recovery, hitting revenue growth targets, weak consumer demand for their products and access to credit and capital.

The percentage of respondents that confessed to fears about a stalled recovery fell from 58 to 46 per cent between December 2009 and June 2010, while those worried about obtaining credit went down from 41 to 26 per cent over the same time period.

Sixty per cent of firms said they expected revenues during the second half of 2010 to significantly exceed those accrued during the first six months of the year.

Meanwhile, 40 per cent said they had concerns about the consumer demand for their products, down from 56 per cent during the first half of 2010.

Tim Herbert, research vice president at CompTIA, said: “IT industry executives remain relatively confident about the tech sector and about their firm’s prospects, but concern over the health of the economy persists.

“In some ways the results point to a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ mentality, where positive news and momentum are followed by unexpected bad news and a renewed sense of negativity about economic conditions.”