PAC: Challenging year ahead for software and IT services

Analyst's latest global report predicts continued increase in cloud uptake and outsourcing as firms look to slash costs, but spend will vary according to region

Despite a pick-up in software and IT service spend last year, 2012 is going to be more of a challenge for the industry, an analyst has warned.

Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) said the ongoing economic crisis in the eurozone will affect spend in the region as firms continue to be cautious with their IT budgets, but conversely the Americas, APAC and Africa remain robust.

Businesses in countries with a "challenging" economic environment are mainly focusing on short-term IT spending reductions, while other regions such as Australia, the US and BRIC countries are more open to investing in new IT concepts, PAC claimed.

The analyst revealed that total EMEA spend will grow by about one per cent between now and 2013 and has remained fairly flat since 2010; APAC total spend will have risen steadily to a seven per cent increase by 2013. Economic pressures will force companies in all regions to continue wanting "more for less", PAC warned.

Christophe Châlons, chief analyst at PAC, said: “Only a few of them can already claim to see the end of the long and exhausting journey towards a lean and flexible IT.”

In more positive news for the channel, customers are looking for a smaller number of preferred suppliers to support them across multiple regions, particularly as consolidation continues.

PAC IT services team's Franck Nassah said: “Industrialisation, shared services centres and offshore are still gaining momentum – both on the user and the supplier sides.”

Karsten Leclerque, also from the IT services team, added: “The trend towards outsourcing in its different forms continues unabated, as it both generates cost savings and a shift from capex to opex. There is a shift from spending on internal skills and external project services towards outsourcing and the wide spectrum of cloud computing offerings for both infrastructure and applications."